The Rational Unified Process^® and UML

The Rational Unified Process, commonly known as RUP^®, is probably the most widely used process for software development.  Its origins go back to the late 1960s when Ivar Jacobson devised a process for software development while working on telephone switching systems at Ericsson in his native Sweden. The process was subsequently published as Objectory by Objectory AB, a company founded by Jacobson in 1987.  Objectory AB was acquired by Rational Software in 1995 and version 4.0 was published as the Rational Objectory Process®.  This version added iterative development to the basic method.

Rational, via the efforts of the three leading methodologists Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and Jim Rumbaugh, were simultaneously developing the Unified Modelling Language (UML), later to be donated to the Object Management Group (OMG) who released an extended version as a standard in 1997.  Rational amended its Objectory Process so that it became a process for the application of UML and launched it as the Rational Unified Process version 5.0 in 1998.  RUP and UML are therefore closely linked. UML is a global standard.

More recently (October 2005), IBM announced that it was donating a basic subset of RUP to the Eclipse open source foundation.

RUP is a detailed and extensive generic process. It has often been accused of being too "heavyweight" for many projects, but this an unjust assessment. As the process is designed to be scalable, suitable for software projects of almost all sizes and types, it cannot be used straight from the box. It is designed to be tailored - both for individual organisations and project types - and needs specialist expertise to implement it. The RUP implementer must not only be a skilled practitioner but must also have skills in adapting the process to the needs of a target organisation and its projects.

fcsl have been implementing RUP since it was first introduced - the very first implementation for a client began in July 1998, the same month that RUP was launched. Our specialists are not only among the best in their field but have contributed to the content of both RUP and UML.

The benefits of implementing RUP can be substantial but the implementation itself can be challenging; using our well-tested and proven methods, you can eliminate risk and be confident of a successful outcome.