RUP vs Agile..what is the different?

One of my friends asked me to explain the difference between RUP(rational unified process) and Agile. In fact both demand high rate of development and release. I thought of putting my answer on my blog as this topic seemed very interesting to me.

What is Rational Unified Process? Click here to find the official definition. Before writing this post I had to read lot of materials in the internet. I have never seen how RUP works. I have just heard of that. Therefore there can be some hiccups in the content. Please let me know if you come across any.  

From what I have read RUP and Agile are two different dimensions and have their own advantages when it comes to different factors such as scale of the project, urgency, type of the customer etc. RUP is a predictive methodology where Agile is adaptive. That being said, RUP also allows changes in the scope but does not welcome changes as Agile does. 

Here is a simple comparison of RUP and Agile. This is not an attempt to prove either of them are greater but to highlight the strengths of each discipline. This is a collection of what was there in internet plus my own thoughts!

Agile Leader

This is a common topic. However worth discussing further to determine how it helps us to build our QA team in an Agile environment. What I experienced is that Agile demands situational leadership in a great deal. Agile team hardly needs managers where as it needs quality leaders. As defined in the definition, a small team cannot afford having many managers overlooking. In fact lot of managerial aspects of the team has been diluted by empowering the development team. 

The Agile team decides how they are being managed. That means team takes the ownership of the delivery and the quality of the delivery. End of the day that’s what all what we need. ‘Ownership’ is a key word in Agile as well as in a leader profile. That’s the main reason why we need leaders in Agile projects. Accountability, honesty, respect, courage, empowerment of your subordinates these are true qualities of a leader.

Read more; Click on the topic

Why estimation is so easy with Agile?

The following is a very useful slide show which was presented in a QA Lead forum but a QA Manager. Please contact me if you want to contact the original author.

Realities

•Most “successful” projects were deliberately over-estimated at the start (Standish – 2001)

•64% of features in products are rarely or never used (Standish – 2002)

•The average project exceeds  its schedule by 63% (Standish – 2001)

•50% of project failures are due to missing or misunderstood requirements (Ravenflow – 2006)

Estimation accuracy vs. effort

Agile Graphs from Web - interesting

All of these images copied in different occasions. I thought it will be nice to put all in just one place to better clarity. First the image is displayed and it will be followed by my own description. If you see anything confusing please be kind enough to put a comment.

 

Description: This will give you a high level view of what Agile is. It is driven not by process but by values. Meantime it will have the increased visibility from the day one.

Agile in curves

 How does Agile help us in Software Development. Take a look at the following image. It clearly shows why people should move into Agile software development methodology. 

 

It is bit hard for me to Agree to the ADAPTABILITY curve. Generally it is very difficult to build Agile software teams(teams not just doing Scrums). That is an inherited problem with Agile.