Let's talk a little bit more about phases. The rational unified
process phases are fundamental aspects of this process and which just touched
on them so we just give a quick overview. And I want to
look at these phases in a little more detail. So, what I'm
going to do is, for each phase, I'm going to discuss what it is,
what it produces and how is the result of the phase suppose
to be,. Assessed, and what are the consequences of this assessment. So
let's start with the first phase, the inception phase. The first phase
goes from the idea of the product to the
vision of the end product. What this involves is basically
to delimiting the project scope. And making the business case
for the product presented. Why is it worth doing? What
are the success criteria? What are the main risks? What
resources will be needed? And so on, specifically these phases
answer three main questions. The first one is, what are
the major users or actors, to use the UML terminology.
And what will the system do for them? To
answer this, these phases produce a simplified use-case model where
only a few use-cases are represented and described. So this
is a sort of initial use-case model. The second question
is about the architecture, what could be an architecture
for the system? So in this phase we will normally
also develop a tentative architecture. So an initial architecture that
describes the most crucial subsystems. Finally this phase also answers
the question, what is the plan and how much
will it cost? To answer this question. This phase will
identify the main risks for the project and also produce
a rough plan with estimates for resources, initial planning for
the phases and dates and milestones. Specifically, the inception phase
generates several deliverables. It is very important that you pay
attention so that you understand what this deliberate approach are.
Starting from the first one, which is the vision document.
And this is a document that provides a general
vision of the core projects requirements, key features and main
constraints. Together with this, the inception phase also produces an
initial use case model, as I just mentioned. So this
is a use case model that includes an initial set
of use cases, and then will be later refined. Two
additional variables are the initial project glossary, which describes the
main terms, using the project and their meaning, and the
initial business case which includes business context. And
success criteria. Yet another deliverable for the inception phase
is the initial project plan, which shows the
phases, iterations, roles of the participants, schedule and initial
estimates. In addition, the inception phase also produces
a risk assessment document, which describes the main risks
and counters measures for this risk. Finally, and this
is an optional deliverable, in the sense that it,
it might or might not be produced, depending on the specific
project. As part of the inception phase we might also generate
1 or more prototypes. For example, we might develop prototypes to
address some specific risks that we have identified or to show some
specific aspect of the system of which we are unsure to
the stakeholders. So basically all the typical users of prototypes that
we discussed before. So when we're done with the inception phase
we hit the first milestone for the cycle we are currently performing.
And so there are some evaluation criteria that will tell
us whether we can consider the inception phase concluded or not.
And the first of this criteria is stakeholder concurrence, which
means that all the stakeholders must agree on the scope, definition,
and cost schedule estimates for the projects. The second criteria
needs requirements understanding, out of the initial primary use cases that
we have identified so far, the right one for our system.
And other criteria is the credibility of the cost schedule estimates,
the priorities, defined the risks identifies and the countermeasures for
those risks, and the development process that we're following. Finally, in
the case we produce prototypes as part of the inceptional
phase, this will also be evaluated and assessed to judge the
overall outcome of the phase. So what happens if the
project fails to pass this milestone? So if the outcome of
the inception phase is considered to be inadequate with respect
to one or more of these criteria. Well at this point,
since we're kind of an initial phase of the cycle
the project may be cancelled or considerably re-thought. So to
summarize all of these in one sentence the Inception Phase
is the phase in which we produce. Then you shall vision,
used case model, project plan, risk assessment and possibly, prototypes
for the project. And we have to make sure, that
all of this deliverables satisfy a set of criteria, so
that we can continue on the project. And otherwise, we'll either
cancel the project or rethink its scope, or other aspects of it.