Guideline: Why Customizing the RUP for System z
This section discusses the rationale for customizing RUP for System z.
Main Description

The Rational Unified Process framework provides guidance on a rich set of software engineering principles. It is applicable to projects of different sizes and complexities, but this means that no single project will benefit from using all of RUP. This concept is also applicable to an already customized process (for example you can think about how to introduce further customization to RUP for Small Projects) that can be customized in order to meet some specific project needs. This concept is also valid for RUP for System z: You can begin to plan your project starting from activities and tasks already defined in the delivery process, but you could also realize that some specific project needs might drive you to add, modify and customize some process elements. In particular, the Prepare Project Environment activity in Inception Phase of the RUP for System z, shown in the figure below, prepares the development environment for a project. The development environment includes both process and tools and is primarily affected by the results obtained from the Tailor the Development Process for the Project task.

Prepare Project Environment Activity
Figure: Prepare Project Environment Activity in Inception Phase

It is crucial for the success of the project that the delivery process is relevant to the project at hand, and to the size and formality requirements of the project. Since the Rational Unified Process provides guidance on a wide range of software engineering principles, you typically need to understand which parts of the process framework can be fully adopted and which ones could be modified or even excluded. Customizing the process is just one part of implementing a process for a project. Once the process has been customized, the project manager instantiates and executes it for the given project. An "Instantiated" process is an enactable project plan (it includes actual iterations, activities, tasks and work products for an actual project). Such instantiation is done as part of project planning.

We recommend customizing the Rational Unified Process using IBM Rational Method Composer (RMC). By using RMC, the resulting process web site has the exact same functionality and look & feel as the classic RUP or RUP for System z web sites. Also, if RMC is used, a Delivery Process can be instantiated by exporting it from RMC and then importing it into a project management tool (like Rational Portfolio Manager) where actual work products can be identified, actual resources can be assigned to roles and so forth. Before starting a plug-in project it is highly recommended that you spend some time looking at existing plug-ins on IBM developerWorks site, because you may find already available methods and processes that fit your need.

In the following pages, we examine two scenarios:

Tip: Refer to Rational Unified Process Concept: Tailoring RUP for a detailed description of a variety of tailoring scenarios.