The Authoritative, Best-Practice Guide to Improving Development Processes with IBM® Rational Unified Process® (RUP®)

This book delivers all the knowledge and insight you need to succeed with the IBM Rational Unified Process and Solutions. Joshua Barnes presents a start-to-finish, best-practice roadmap to the complete implementation cycle of IBM RUP–from projecting ROI and making the business case through piloting, implementation, mentoring, and beyond.

Drawing on his extensive experience leading large-scale IBM RUP implementations and working with some of the industry’s most recognized thought leaders in the Software Engineering Process world, Barnes brings together comprehensive “lessons learned” from both successful and failed projects. You’ll learn from real-world case studies, including actual project artifacts.

Whether you’re an executive, software professional, or consultant, this book will help you continuously improve the maturity of your development processes–and reap the benefits: better quality, faster delivery, and more business value.

After reading this book you will be able to

·        Get past the myths of software process improvement to focus on what’s truly practical

·        Identify and evaluate your best candidate process solutions

·        Objectively project the ROI achievable with IBM R UP and IBM Rational solutions

·        Develop funding models, business cases, and executive support

·        Recruit, staff, organize, and motivate your implementation team

·        Plan for effective integration, process alignment, and change management

·        Choose the right pilots, learn the right lessons, and develop effective adoption models

·        Move quickly to successful program-level implementation

·        Set maturity level goals for process and tool utilization

·        Map “End States” for both quantity and quality

·        Plan for training and mentoring–and understand the distinct role of each

·        Keep the momentum going after your implementation is complete

Link to www.upmentors.com, where you can download actual sample implementation documents–not just templates!

www.ibmpressbooks.com

Preface xvii

Acknowledgments xxiii

About the Author xxv

Chapter 1: Evaluating Process Solutions 1

Chapter 2: Your First Steps Toward Implementing RUP and IBM Rational Solutions 17

Chapter 3: Assessing Your Organization and Building Your Business Case for Organizational Change 29

Chapter 4: Implementation Team 49

Chapter 5: Setting Up Pre-Integrated and Process-Aligned Tooling 67

Chapter 6: Implementation Approach 75

Chapter 7: Transitioning to a Program Approach 99

Chapter 8: Funding Model 117

Chapter 9: Training and Mentoring Models 131

Chapter 10: Is Your Implementation Complete? 149

Appendix 1: Executive ROI Overview 155

Appendix 2: Detailed Appendix for Executive ROI Overview 159

Appendix 3: Maturity Level Goals–Sample Tasks 167

Index 175

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 9 Ratings

Keys to IBM Rational Implementation Success - 2007-10-10
Reviewer Rating:
There are many books out there on USING the Rational Unified Process (RUP) and the tools. However, guidance on IMPLEMENTING a methodology across an enterprise and how to achieve ROI with tools has not been readily available. Over the years I have seen organizations filled with RUP gurus and tools experts still fail in their Rational rollout, and unfortunately they often retreat to their previous chaotic process or lack thereof. As well, organizations struggle to make their ROI and capability & maturity improvements quantifiable.

This book provides tools, complete with real examples, to create a business case for RUP and productivity tools, shows how to increase capability through a structured mentoring program, and most importantly, how to assess your results to ensure your implementation is on track.

I, like Joshua, teach courses on implementing RUP and the tools. This book is clearly now THE reference text for my students.

My review - 2009-01-14
Reviewer Rating:
My review - I have had and still do have the pleasure of working along side Josh. Josh and I became good friends during an engagement for our client. First the book - if you are looking for some guidance on how to 1. Investigate Software Development Change 2. Understand the cost and Return on Investment 3. Insight into what it takes to implement RUP, this book is for you. Josh covers multiple perspectives of implementing change to an organization's current software development practice.

Now, more practical stuff...Man can Josh drink coffee! Kidding aside, seeing and being part of Josh's team implementing, adapting RUP for a large organization based on the workings of his book has/is an incredible experience. I personally have been part of Ivar and Agneta Jacobson's team. I have had the "blessing" working with some of the best. WELL, my list grew to +1. Josh's approach to helping organizations adopt RUP is uncanny. His book only gives insight on things like the Mentor Action Plan, Levels of Maturity, Creating a "pool" of internal Process Mentors is unrivaled. You have to see this first hand. Watching teams successfully adopt the core disciplines, meet delivery dates, and discover that the new status quo helps the team in conquering the problem of software development is awesome, AND from a business perspective produce higher quality software that in the end yields a higher ROI. If you and/organization needs a "facelift" to the current SDLC such that you want and need someone who cannot only mentor but has the practical experience to create meaningful artifacts and not waste time and effort - Josh and the UPMentors group is the answer.

A MUST for managing RUP implementations Successfully - 2008-06-09
Reviewer Rating:
There are many books about the Rational Unified Process (RUP) and how to put it in place, but this one is SPECIAL. Fundamentally, It is:
- Concise the main body is under 150 pages, including diagrams and tables)
- To the point (it wastes no time delving in the details of RUP concepts for which there already are many good references)
- Practical (It deals with the realities of championing and managing RUP adoption in a real commercial environment, NOT what you might do in an academic setting)
- Comprehensive (It addresses the strategic, financial, and political aspects of the task, not merely the technical aspects)

It also provides a critical benefit over other comparable books, namely a strategy to deal with a problem that has plagued RUP throughout its existense: Its size and complexity.
Although there is consensus in the software industry that you cannot turn a novice organization into a mature RUP outfit in one fell swoop, very little is said on how to scale and evolve expectations over time, from conducting successful pilots, to disseminating the method across the entire organization, on to growing the organization through graduated maturity levels of adoption. This books fills that gap.

Two "caveat" worth mentioning:
1- This book assumes that you are an experienced RUP practioner and consequently says very little in the way of RUP concepts
2- This book is (mercifully) short which is absolutely necessary to NOT put the reader to sleep. As a result, while it provides a clear and concrete picture of the adoption process, it does not "dot all the i's" nor "cross all the t's". In other words, after you read this book, you will have a clear idea of the road ahead, but it will take ample effort to get yourself to the point where you can walk it ... blindfolded.

Implementing Process - 2008-05-13
Reviewer Rating:
Implementing process in a large organization is a huge challenge not just technically but socially. Joshua Barnes gets this, "people are slow to change and react to change in different ways". His book should be required reading for anyone working to improve process efficiency and effectiveness.

The number one reason process adoption projects fail is because there isn't visible support from upper management. Barnes's book focuses on ROI at every step and wages the key arguements to gain the support from both the top and the roots. His guidance also outlines a model to support the change so that process improvement lasts and continues, instead of people reverting back to old practices.

Excellent Handbook for a Large Scale RUP Implementation - 2007-10-31
Reviewer Rating:
As this book states, leading a RUP implementation without the right subject matter expertise significantly limits your odds of success. I am currently working with Joshua on a large scale RUP/Rational Tool implementation and experienced life before and after having the right knowledge on-board. Joshua has guided multiple large scale implementations and has brought his accumulated base of implementation knowledge and lessons learned to bear. Joshua's book contains much of what he has learned and is an excellent handbook if you are planning to or are currently running a RUP / Rational Tool implementation of your very own.

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