Agile Unified Process (AUP)

Agile Unified Process is a simplified version of RUP model. AUP describes a simple and comprehensive approach to the development of business applications using best practices of RUP model in combination with agile methods. It was presented by Scott W. Ambler for the first time in the year 2005.

Compared with the RUP model, AUP also has four main phases (start, elaboration, construction, transition). The basic application is in a simplified view of basic activities and so the three disciplines, business modeling, process applications, and analysis and design are  replaced with only one discipline – modeling. It is an important part of the AUP models, but does not dominate it because it is necessary that the project remains rapid and is developing models and documents that are just barely good enough.

Another difference with the RUP is in altered auxiliary discipline of configuration management and change. At AUP model that discipline is applicable only to the configuration management since the accelerated development activities related to change management are typical of the processing requirements of the AUP part modeling.

Instead of using, for delivering the program, an approach where the entire program is delivered in one delivery, the AUP model program is delivered in parts (eg, version 1, version 2, etc.). Individual development versions are supplied at the end of each iteration. There is a need to distinguish between different iterations. There are developmental iterations at the end of which the developed program is used in the process of quality testing, and there are production iterations at the end of which a program is put into production at the user’s end.

Time required to deliver the first version is longer than the others. This is because in this phase there is a need to make certain administrative tasks for the development to work and that people would become effective and cooperative. For example, if the development of the first version lasted 12 months, the development of other version could last 9 months, and all others 6 months. This can be very useful because the focus is fairly early directed on introduction of system to the user, and that experience helps in avoiding problems in subsequent deliveries.

Accelerated unified process (AUP) is based on several principles:

• Workers know what they are doing, because people do not need to read the detailed documentation about the processes, but they should be given some simple design
• Ease of description, which means that everything is described concisely using smaller instructions, instead of manual
• Acceleration is one of the basic principles of this process
• Focus on important activities and not on others that may have occurred during the project
• Independence on the tools you use enables you to use any of the tools, those that are best suited for a particular job
• Adaptability of AUP model to the development team needs