Build
Definition
- Build
- a stage with duration
that is a component part of a
phase
- a.k.a., iteration
As illustrated in the preceding figure, Build is part of the following inheritance hierarchy:
The typical responsibilities of builds are to:
- Decompose phases into small, manageable chunks.
- Provide a short-term, relatively informal means to schedule work units.
- Early builds should be architecturally driven, and
therefore based primarily on the quality requirements and the use of components.
- Later builds should be driven by the functional
requirements (i.e., use cases and use case paths).
- Builds should be very short duration (e.g., one day to one month).
- Upper management and the client representative typially
use phases and milestone Whereas phases and major milestones
provide upper management and the client with the means to
formally schedule the performance of major work units and the
production of major work products, builds provide developers
an informal way of scheduling their work.
- Because builds typically involve both iteration
and incremental development, it is misleading
to call them either iterations (ala RUP) or increments.
