What is an Agile UP? - UML

The UP was not meant by its creators to be heavy or un - agile, although its large optional set of activities and artifacts have understandably led some to that impression. Rather, it was meant to be adopted and applied in the spirit of adaptability and lightness - an agile UP. Some examples of how this applies:

A UML sketch of a sequence diagram from a project

• Prefer a small set of UP activities and artifacts. Some projects will benefit more than others, but, in general, keep it simple. Remember that all UP artifacts are optional, and avoid creating them unless they add value. Focus on early programming, not early documenting.


• Since the UP is iterative and evolutionary, requirements and designs are not completed before implementation. They adaptively emerge through a series of iterations, based on feedback.


• Apply the UML with agile modeling practices.


• There isn't a detailed plan for the entire project. There is a high - level plan (called the Phase Plan) that estimates the project end date and other major milestones, but it does not detail the fine - grained steps to those milestones. A detailed plan (called the Iteration Plan) only plans with great - detail one iteration in advance. Detailed planning is done adaptively from iteration to iteration.

The case studies emphasize a relatively small number of artifacts, and iterative development, in the spirit of an agile UP.

Are There Other Critical UP Practices?

The central idea to appreciate and practice in the UP is short time boxed iterative, evolutionary, and adaptive development. Some additional best practices and key concepts in the UP:

• tackle high - risk and high - value issues in early iterations
• continuously engage users for evaluation, feedback, and requirements
• build a cohesive, core architecture in early iterations
• continuously verify quality; test early, often, and realistically
• apply use cases where appropriate
• do some visual modeling (with the UML)
• carefully manage requirements
• practice change request and configuration management