Even though many of the RUP work products are named "plan" or "document", the intent of a RUP work product is to describe the creation of and communication of information, not to impose a particular representation. Templates supplied with RUP are provided for those who wish to use a document and to provide an outline of the information that belongs to the work product, however, there are many alternative means of capturing and communicating information. Some of these are listed below.

Direct Communication / No Documentation

It is often more important to perform an activity than to document it. It is frequently more important to communicate information than to document it for later use.

For example, you may choose to hold regular meetings in which project status is communicated to key stakeholders, and not generate a separate Work Product: Status Assessment.

Email

Direct communication is not always an option. For example, you may have key stakeholders that cannot attend status meetings, but still need to be kept in the loop. Email is often a good means of capturing and communicating information that is not updated and maintained, such as Work Product: Status Assessment.

Whiteboards

For small co-located teams, or when information is being modified rapidly, a white-board is often a good means of capturing and communicating information, rather than creating a formal document.

Collaborative Groupware

A virtual white-board, such as that provided by a WikiWeb (see http://www.wikiweb.com) can be effective means of sharing information for distributed teams.

Spreadsheets

For information that needs sorting or numerical computation, a spreadsheet is often ideal. Work Product: Risk List is an example.

Tool Repositories / Reports

If information is captured in a commonly available tool repository, then stakeholders may simply go to the tool to view the information.

For example, Work Product: Work Order can be managed as CRs in Rational ClearQuest, requirements can be managed in Rational RequisitePro. Reports can be provided to stakeholders who don't wish to access the tool directly.

Documents

Documents are easily distributed through email, fax, mail, or placement on a common network drive. Documents are easily versioned, so that one can track changes over time, or use as an asset on a future project. The RUP provides document examples and templates that guide the author in capturing the appropriate information.

Combination Documents

Many work products are sufficiently related that you may wish to combine them into a single document. Some common examples include the following:

• Deployment Plan merged into the Project Plan
• Status Assessments merged into the Iteration Assessment
• Supplementary Specification merged into the Vision