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Key Concepts

Topics: Basic Concepts in the Rational Unified Process > Software Engineering Process

Basic Concepts in the Rational Unified Process Top

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Software Engineering Process Top

A process is a set of partially ordered steps intended to reach a goal; in software engineering the goal is to build a software product, or to enhance an existing one; in process engineering, the goal is to develop or enhance a process. In RUP, these are organized into a set of disciplines to further define the workflows and other process elements.

Expressed in terms of business modeling, the software development process is a business process; the Rational Unified Process (RUP) is a generic business process for object-oriented software engineering. It describes a family of related software engineering processes sharing a common structure, a common process architecture. It provides a disciplined approach to assigning tasks and responsibilities within a development organization. Its goal is to ensure the production of high-quality software that meets the needs of its end users, within a predictable schedule and budget. The RUP captures many of the best practices in modern software development in a form that can be tailorable for a wide range of projects and organizations.

When a software system is developed from scratch, development is the process of creating a system from requirements. But once the systems has taken form (or in our terms, once the system has passed through the initial development cycle), any further development is the process of conforming the system to the new or modified requirements. This applies throughout the system's lifecycle.

The software-engineering process is the process of developing a system from requirements, either new (initial development cycle) or changed (evolution cycle).

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