Work Product (Artifact): Development Case
This artifact describes the development process that you have chosen to follow in your project.
Purpose

The purpose of the Development Case is to capture the tailored process for an organization or for an individual project. It describes how the process has been configured.

Relationships
Container Artifact
RolesResponsible: Modified By:
Input ToMandatory:
  • None
Optional: External:
  • None
Output From
Description
Main Description

The Development Case describes the Development Process to be used for an organization or for a project. It describes how the process applies to the context of the organization/project, and how the process has been configured for the organization/project.  The Development Case is used to capture organization or project-specific aspects of the process. It provides an overview of the process to be followed and is something that should be understood by everyone on the project. 

Brief Outline

The Development Case includes information on the RUP disciplines being used by the organization/project.

It usually contains the following organization/project-specific information:

  • Information about how to use the work products for each discipline. For example, references to templates that the organization/project is to use to describe the work products.
  • References to guidelines and information that the organization/project wants to use in addition to the information contained in RUP.
  • References to content in RUP instead of repeating this information in the Development Case.

In general, the development case should refer to the software development process and any organization/project-specific process assets like guidelines, templates, etc. for details, as opposed to repeating the information, inline.

The development case also includes information on what was tailored and why.


Properties
Optional
PlannedYes
Illustrations
Key Considerations

Depending on the level of tailoring being performed (see the tailoring levels defined in Concept: Tailoring RUP), the Development Case can be use as:

  • The vehicle for process tailoring (this is it's primary purpose and the one it has historically been used for).
  • A planning tool to get ready for a more extensive tailoring using Rational Method Composer.

The Development Case can then be included as part of the Development Process itself, or just archived as historical documentation of what was added/removed/changed from the original process.  The Development Case is generally included as part of the development process in those instances when the process being tailored cannot be changed, or when there is information that must be captured regarding the process that cannot be captured in the process itself.

Tailoring
Representation OptionsFor an example of where the Development Case has been integrated into a project web site, see the Example: Wylie College Software Development Process
More Information