The miniature Unified Process

From SoftwarePractice.org

The "miniature Unified Process" aka MUP is a simple process based on the Unified Process. Its intended use is to structure project assignments in software-related classes. Often, students learn about process in (say) a software engineering class, but then in a class that involves a significant amount of software development, adopt some other (non-) approach (like doing most of it in the last week).

Contents 1 Overview 2 Tutorial

Overview

The MUP is intended to provide students (and instructors) with a simple but effective way to manage and monitor progress of a significant software development assignment, throughout the course of a semester. A typical instance of MUP looks like this:

For a lecture that includes slides on MUP, go to the Introduction to Object-Oriented Design courseware page.

Tutorial

In this tutorial, you will be performing a "role play" on the process that you will be following this semester. It is important that you follow through and do the exercises as written, or you will find yourself going off track later in the semester. (And in some subjects, that can cost you marks!)

1. Group formation and team registration. Form into small groups. Four is an ideal number. Introduce each other, and write your names on a card. This card is your team registration card, and will be kept by the instructor. You should also exchange email addresses and phone numbers at this point, as you will be working together for the rest of the semester.
2. Get sorted out for the role play. The instructor will give you one or more short system descriptions. Discuss the chosen project in your group, so that everybody has a reasonable idea of what the project is about. It's not critical to fully understand the project at this stage; that will come as you work through the role play.
3. Perform all phases of the MUP. Work through each phase of the MUP using the lecture slides linked above as a guideline. For each iteration, you are to produce a single index card. The index card is to:
   • Be labeled with the name of the phase and the iteration number within that phase
   • List what your team did within that iteration, and
   • List the concrete work products of your team at the end of that iteration.
4. Review your work. After completing the Transition phase, lay your cards on the table and, as a team, review the whole process you "followed." Make any changes that you feel are necessary. Finally, create another index card labeled "Unresolved Issues." Go around the table discussing things that the team doesn't understand, would like more clarity on, and that otherwise need to be discussed (such as work breakdown, meeting times, etc etc).
5. Finalize. The tutor will wrap up the class by asking some teams to walk the rest of the class through the process they followed, and asking the class to comment as they go.