The Rational Unified Process Made Easy: A Practitioner's Guide to Rational Unified Process

Rating:
Summary: Best Hands-On RUP Book
Review: "RUP Made Easy" is the best book available for anyone trying to learn how to actually do RUP. "The Rational Unified Process: An Introduction" by Kruchten (3rd Ed.) does a better job of explaining the principles behind RUP, but the problem with "An Introduction" is that it does not explain how to actually do anything. "Made Easy", on the other hand, is filled with lots of practical examples. I usually recommend "An Introduction" for senior managers within the organization who need to understand why we are using RUP; but for the project managers, analysts and developers who are doing the actual work I always recommend "Made Easy". "Made Easy" is also the book I am most likely to turn to for reference when someone asks a question about RUP.

Rating:
Summary: Very useful and informative book on the RUP
Review: First of all, let me share with you something that most of you may already know: There are only three books on the RUP. Namely:
- "The Rational Unified Process, An Introduction", by Philippe Kruchthen
- This book
- The Eeles et al. book on J2EE and RUP.

I haven't read any of the other two books, so I cannot tell you how this book falls into the greater scheme of things. I.e. I do not know what sort of overlap exists with the RUP Intro book, or which of the two to read first, etc. What I can tell you though is that this book, as it stands on its own, is a very good book in helping you (a) understand what the RUP is and (b) understand how to apply it on your projects.

First of all, the two authors of the book are as authoritative as can be. Kruchten (the author of the Intro book) is the chief technical RUP guy in Rational. Kroll is the Rational director (or whatever his new title is now under IBM) responsible for the RUP. These guys know the RUP and in a sense _are_ the RUP.

Now, to focus more on the book per se, it is as follows: It starts with a general intro chapter and then it moves on to chapter 2, which captures the so-called "Spirit of the RUP". It contains 8 tenets which sort-of summarize the philosophy of the RUP. Just as with a legal system, where it is not sufficient to only know articles of laws and statutes but you have to be extremely familiar and cognizant of the context in which these laws are applied and the purpose they serve in order to judge correctly, similarly with the RUP you don't only need to know the product with all the info and features it provides, but you need to have absorbed the philosophy that governs the process in order to apply the given material in the appropriate and most fruitful manner.

Chapter 3 I found (the emphasis is on "I"; you mileage may vary) the most useful. It basically charts the whole territory of processes that are out there (RUP, XP, other agile processes, heavyweight assessment standards such as the CMM) based on two important criteria, and tries to make you understand where RUP falls in the plane (and it is not really a fixed point, as RUP is customizable so there is some sort of leeway in how much iterative and/or ceremonial we want it to be).

Chapter 4 is an aberattion to the rest of the book IMHO, and I haven't found it much useful, or to my liking. It basically tries to explain RUP phases etc. in the context of a one-man project. I am not saying that this is necessarily a bad way to try to introduce people to the concepts of RUP in a more practical context - maybe you'll like it; I just didn't.

Afterwards, in chapter 5-9 we have an expounding of the 4 RUP phases, while chapter 10 is product-specific. Chapter 11 is extremely important as it talks about how to adopt the RUP in your organization, and proposes as the way to do so, treating the RUP adoption as a project of its own and applying some sort of "meta-RUP" on it; very interesting! Chapter 12 talks about planning an iterative project and Ch. 13 covers "antipatterns" (although the authors, to their credit, avoid using that term). Ch. 13 is very important reading and some of the stuff in there (e.g. the discussion on what constitutes a bad use case) you will find useful in a context much wider than the RUP.

Because each one of the roles (PM, Architect, Developer, etc.) views the process from their own unique perspective (just as power forward views the ballgame more in the perspective of getting many rebounds, whereas the point guard views in the sense of passing assists and shooting the occasional 3-pointer) it is very useful to have a chapter discussing each role's unique perspective of the RUP. My opinion is the all roles must read the chapters for all roles, but if you are short on time, this also helps you focus on the stuff strictly pertaining to your role. Although I am not a tester per se, I liked very much the discussion on "Good Enough Quality" in the Tester chapter. "Paradigms of Good Enough" and "The Cost of Quality" I have found to be a "must-read".

Also, the book has good references (both books and Web articles - especially from the RationalEdge) and the usual good quality you would expect from an AW publication in general and an OTS book in particular. Finally, even though in the intro the authors play a little pun on themselves on being French and Swedish respectively and thus non-native English speakers, don't get scared by that comment. Their English is excellent.

All in all, a very good and useful read. Buy it if only for chapters 3, 13, and 18. Actually, you may want to buy it even if you are not intending to use the RUP.

Rating:
Summary: Very useful and informative book on the RUP
Review: First of all, let me share with you something that most of you may already know: There are only three books on the RUP. Namely:
- "The Rational Unified Process, An Introduction", by Philippe Kruchthen
- This book
- The Eeles et al. book on J2EE and RUP.

I haven't read any of the other two books, so I cannot tell you how this book falls into the greater scheme of things. I.e. I do not know what sort of overlap exists with the RUP Intro book, or which of the two to read first, etc. What I can tell you though is that this book, as it stands on its own, is a very good book in helping you (a) understand what the RUP is and (b) understand how to apply it on your projects.

First of all, the two authors of the book are as authoritative as can be. Kruchten (the author of the Intro book) is the chief technical RUP guy in Rational. Kroll is the Rational director (or whatever his new title is now under IBM) responsible for the RUP. These guys know the RUP and in a sense _are_ the RUP.

Now, to focus more on the book per se, it is as follows: It starts with a general intro chapter and then it moves on to chapter 2, which captures the so-called "Spirit of the RUP". It contains 8 tenets which sort-of summarize the philosophy of the RUP. Just as with a legal system, where it is not sufficient to only know articles of laws and statutes but you have to be extremely familiar and cognizant of the context in which these laws are applied and the purpose they serve in order to judge correctly, similarly with the RUP you don't only need to know the product with all the info and features it provides, but you need to have absorbed the philosophy that governs the process in order to apply the given material in the appropriate and most fruitful manner.

Chapter 3 I found (the emphasis is on "I"; you mileage may vary) the most useful. It basically charts the whole territory of processes that are out there (RUP, XP, other agile processes, heavyweight assessment standards such as the CMM) based on two important criteria, and tries to make you understand where RUP falls in the plane (and it is not really a fixed point, as RUP is customizable so there is some sort of leeway in how much iterative and/or ceremonial we want it to be).

Chapter 4 is an aberattion to the rest of the book IMHO, and I haven't found it much useful, or to my liking. It basically tries to explain RUP phases etc. in the context of a one-man project. I am not saying that this is necessarily a bad way to try to introduce people to the concepts of RUP in a more practical context - maybe you'll like it; I just didn't.

Afterwards, in chapter 5-9 we have an expounding of the 4 RUP phases, while chapter 10 is product-specific. Chapter 11 is extremely important as it talks about how to adopt the RUP in your organization, and proposes as the way to do so, treating the RUP adoption as a project of its own and applying some sort of "meta-RUP" on it; very interesting! Chapter 12 talks about planning an iterative project and Ch. 13 covers "antipatterns" (although the authors, to their credit, avoid using that term). Ch. 13 is very important reading and some of the stuff in there (e.g. the discussion on what constitutes a bad use case) you will find useful in a context much wider than the RUP.

Because each one of the roles (PM, Architect, Developer, etc.) views the process from their own unique perspective (just as power forward views the ballgame more in the perspective of getting many rebounds, whereas the point guard views in the sense of passing assists and shooting the occasional 3-pointer) it is very useful to have a chapter discussing each role's unique perspective of the RUP. My opinion is the all roles must read the chapters for all roles, but if you are short on time, this also helps you focus on the stuff strictly pertaining to your role. Although I am not a tester per se, I liked very much the discussion on "Good Enough Quality" in the Tester chapter. "Paradigms of Good Enough" and "The Cost of Quality" I have found to be a "must-read".

Also, the book has good references (both books and Web articles - especially from the RationalEdge) and the usual good quality you would expect from an AW publication in general and an OTS book in particular. Finally, even though in the intro the authors play a little pun on themselves on being French and Swedish respectively and thus non-native English speakers, don't get scared by that comment. Their English is excellent.

All in all, a very good and useful read. Buy it if only for chapters 3, 13, and 18. Actually, you may want to buy it even if you are not intending to use the RUP.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for RUP beginners
Review: For years, the only intro for RUP was Philippe Kruchten's book. And it was not enough... Then Larman's book came out (the great one, no doubt!), but this book is too much for someone who wants to understand process without going into UML discussions (the main purpose of Larman's book).
"Rational Unified Process Made Easy" finally closes the gap.
Even if you know (or think you know) RUP, it would be a good idea to buy this one.

Rating:
Summary: A good companion to any people involved in RUP projects
Review: This book brings answers to questions with which any process engineer was confronted at one time or another during his work on RUP implementation.
The combination of concepts and practical examples as well as the last part of the book describing five of the main roles in a project (Project Manager, Analyst, Architect, Developer and Tester) make it a multi-use book. You can read it as you would a regular book, from beginning to end; or you can also use it as a reference when you participate in an RUP project or if you have the charge to implement it in a project or an organization.

Rating:
Summary: A goal oriented guide to RUP
Review: This is a good book telling the philosophy behind RUP. And it also gives some practical advice to adopt, config and apply RUP.Although it is not a thorough description of RUP because it doesn't systematicly describe the disciplines in RUP, it provides some other reference. A good book for RUP beginners.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book on RUP - A Must Have
Review: This is an excellent book on RUP! Whether you are new to RUP or experienced and just need a refresher course, this is the book for you! Kroll and Krutchten do an outstanding job making RUP easy to understand and consumable for the masses. They help make the move to iterative, risk-based development easy by providing examples for the same three projects (a small new development project, a large new development project and a large enhancement project) throughout the book. This helps to constantly reinforce what is being discussed in a familiar setting to ensure the concepts are understood. All in all, this is an excellent book. I bought a copy and read the first few chapters when I bought four more for the rest of my team to help them make the move to RUP. The proof is in the pudding - the book is working. My team is making huge headway in obtaining a detailed understanding of RUP.

Rating:
Summary: Learn and apply RUP - Really!
Review: Yes, this book adds enough practical advise and additional items on how to implement successfully. Well worth the money!