A Comparative study of Rational Unified process( RUP ), Agile & Microsoft Framework(MSF)

A Comparative Study: Rational Unified Process , Agile

with Microsoft Solution Framework

Submitted By: Shailesh Bohra

MBA-SDM(2007-09) 07030244022

Symbiosis Centre For IT

Background of RUP

• The RUP is "use-case driven, architecture-centric, and incremental and iterative".   Each iteration is part of four overall 'phases': Inception, Elaboration, Construction, and Transition.  Iterations occur in each phase.  Activities in iterations are focused on one of the four activities: gathering requirements, analyzing, designing, implementing, and testing.

• RUP comes with six engineering disciplines & three supporting discipline.

Continued:• Six Engineering Discipline:

– Business modeling discipline  – Requirements discipline  – Analysis and design discipline  – Implementation discipline – Test discipline – Deployment discipline

• Three Supporting Discipline:– Configuration & Change Management Discipline.– Project Management – Environment Discipline

Background of Agile • Agile methodologies generally promote a project management process

that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability, a set of engineering best practices that allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software, and a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals.

• The Agile Manifesto, widely regarded as the canonical definition of agile development and accompanying agile principles. The Agile Manifesto states: – Individuals and interactions over processes and tools – Working software over comprehensive documentation – Customer collaboration over contract negotiation – Responding to change over following a plan

Continued:Some of the principles behind the Agile Manifesto are:• Customer satisfaction by rapid, continuous delivery of useful

software • Working software is delivered frequently (weeks rather than months) • Working software is the principal measure of progress • Even late changes in requirements are welcomed • Close, daily cooperation between business people and developers • Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (Co-

location) • Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be

trusted • Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design • Simplicity • Self-organizing teams • Regular adaptation to changing circumstances

Background of Microsoft Solution Framework

• Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) is a set of principles, models, disciplines, concepts, and guidelines for successfully delivering information technology solutions from Microsoft. MSF is not limited to developing applications only, it is also applicable to other IT projects like deployment, networking or infrastructure projects. MSF does not force the developer to use a specific methodology (Waterfall, Agile) but lets them decide what methodology to use.

• The MSF 4.0 released in 2005 included two derivative methodologies which are:– Microsoft Solutions Framework for Agile Software Development

(MSF4ASD) – Microsoft Solutions Framework for Capability Maturity Model

Integration Process Improvement (MSF4CMMI)

MSF Tracks

• Envision

• Plan

• Build

• Stabilize

• Deploy

• Continuous

What is RUP & Agile ?

• RUP is a configurable software development process that is based on many years of experience in using object technology to develop mission critical software in a variety of industries.

• Agile methodology defines a system of methods designed to minimize the cost of change, especially in a context where important facts emerge late in a project, or where we are obliged to adapt to important uncontrolled factors.

What is MSF?

• Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) is a set of software engineering processes, principles, and proven practices that enable developers to achieve success in the software development life cycle (SDLC). MSF provides an adaptable guidance, based upon experiences and best practices from inside and outside of Microsoft, to increase the chance of successful deliverance of information technology solution to the customer by working fast, decreasing the number of people on the project team, averting risk, while enabling high quality results.

• MSF 4.0 provides a higher-level framework of guidance and principles which can be mapped to a variety of prescriptive process templates. It is structured in both descriptive and prescriptive methodologies. The descriptive component is called the MSF 4.0 metamodel, which is a theoretical description of the SDLC best practices for creating SDLC methodologies.

MSF 4.0 Structure

MSF TEAM MODEL

MSF for Agile Software Development methodology

• Scenario & Context driven to determine how to operate the project.• It is composed of tracks, advocacy groups and cycles.• The non-functional and functional requirements of the system are

expressed in scenarios and quality of service requirements (QSR).• The tracks represent the process in time, the advocacy groups

represent the process in work activities. The cycles describe the frequency with which activities, within the tracks and advocacy groups, are performed or work products produced and updated to turn the project cycle

RUP Practitioners

• RUP Practitioners are:

– document-centric

– perfectionists (with perfect artifacts)

– Cautious ( Can’t afford even a single mistake)

– independent (with well defined interfaces)

Agile Practitioners

• Agile Practitioners are:

– Customer focused

– Real (No guesses)

– Intuitive ( Rely on experience)

– Communicators

Iterative

• Although UP is iterative, it follows the general phases of inception, elaboration, construction, and transition in a more or less linear fashion.  As the development proceeds less time is spent on requirements and analysis, and more time is spent on construction, testing, and transition.

• Agile processes on the other hand, spend time on each activity in each iteration.  During each iteration (usually 2-4 weeks) a little of all steps (requirements, analysis, design, development, test, etc.) are undertaken.  The goal is to have stable software which could be shipped at the end of each iteration. 

Flexibility V/S Team Size

• Rational Unified Process (RUP) are quire comprehensive, and were designed to be modified to suit the project being developed.  This adds another layer of complexity to the development effort, as the process has first to be modified before being implemented.  While this allows for the flexibility to use UP on any project, it requires teams to have access to UP experts to ensure that the process is being defined and used properly.

• Agile on the other hand tends to be used for small to medium sized projects involving teams up to 10 closely knit developers.  Once teams become bigger than this, agile methodologies begin to fail, as they don’t scale to large teams, or teams spread across geographies.

RUP Best Practices

• Develop software iteratively.

• Manage requirements.

• Use component-based architectures.

• Visually model software.

• Continuously verify software quality.

• Control changes to software.

MSF Foundation Principle

• Foster open communications

• Work toward a shared vision

• Quality is everyone's job every day

• Stay agile, adapt to change

• Make deployment a habit

• Flow of value

• Partner with customers

References:

• http://ccollins.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/unified-process-vs-agile-processes/

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Rational_Unified_Process

• https://www.samrantech.com/methodologies-comparison-between-agile-and-rup-2.html

• http://www.esnips.com/doc/7bbb8479-94df-4d5a-8a61-c432707050c1/Traa,-J.W.A.---RUP-vs.-MSF---A-Comparative-Study.pdf ( A nice book.. Must go through it)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Solutions_Framework

THE END

THANK YOU !