Openup

Introduction to OpenUP (Open Unified Process)
Different projects have different process needs. Typical factors dictate the needs for a
more formal or agile process, such as team size and location, architecture complexity,
technology novelty, conformance to standards, among others. Nevertheless, there are
good software development practices that benefit any project team and help them to bemore effective.
This paper introduces the building blocks of OpenUP – an agile and Unified Process that
contains the minimal set of practices that help teams to be more effective in developing
software. OpenUP embraces a pragmatic, agile philosophy that focuses on the
collaborative nature of software development. It is a tools-agnostic, low-ceremony
process that can be used as is or extended toaddress a broad variety of project types.

What is OpenUP
OpenUP is a minimally sufficient software development process – meaning that only
fundamental content is included. Thus, it does not provide guidance on many topics that
projects may deal with, such as large team sizes, compliance, contractual situations,
safety or mission critical applications, technology-specific guidance, etc.However,
OpenUP is complete in the sense it can be manifested as an entire process to build a
system. For addressing needs that are not covered in its content, OpenUP is extensible to
be used as foundation on which process content can be added or tailored as needed.
OpenUP is an agile process. Though OpenUP is lightweight, there is much more to
agility than simply being light. Most recognizedagile practices are intended to get a team
communicating with one another providing a shared understanding of the project. Agile
methods have drawn our attention back to the importance of coordinating understanding,
benefiting stakeholders over unproductive deliverables and formality.
OpenUP has the essential characteristics of a lean Unified Process that applies iterative
and incrementalapproaches within a proven structured lifecycle. OpenUP is based on use
cases and scenarios, risk management, and an architecture-centric approach to drive
development.

OpenUP principles
OpenUP is driven by the four core principles listed below. Principles capture the general
intentions behind a process and create the foundation for interpreting roles and work
products, and for performingtasks:

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Collaborate to align interests and share understanding. This principle
promotes practices that foster a healthy team environment, enable collaboration
and develop a shared understanding of the project.
Balance competing priorities to maximize stakeholder value. This principle
promotes practices that allow project participants and stakeholders to develop asolution that maximizes stakeholder benefits, and is compliant with constraints
placed on the project.
Focus on the architecture early to minimize risks and organize development.
This principle promotes practices that allow the team to focus on architecture to
minimize risks and organize development.
Evolve to continuously obtain feedback and improve. This principle promotes
practices that allowthe team to get early and continuous feedback from
stakeholders, and demonstrate incremental value to them.

Each OpenUP principle supports a statement in the Agile Manifesto, as seen in Table 1.
OpenUP principle

Agile Manifesto statement

Collaborate to align interests and share
understanding

Individuals and interactions over process
and tools

Balance competing priorities tomaximize
stakeholder value

Customer collaboration over contract
negotiation

Focus on the architecture early to minimize
risks and organize development

Working software over comprehensive
documentation

Evolve to continuously obtain feedback
and improve

Responding to change over following a
plan

Table 1 – Mapping between OpenUP principles and Agile Manifesto

How OpenUP is...