inception

name	inception
description	Guides the Unified Process inception phase. Use when establishing a project's high-level vision, feasibility, business case, basic scope, key risks, and defining iteration plans to transition to elaboration.

Inception

Overview

Inception is the initial short step to establish a common vision, basic scope, and feasibility for a project. It is not the time to define all requirements, generate reliable plans, or design the architecture. The goal is to decide if the project is worth a serious investigation in the elaboration phase.

When to Use

• Establishing the initial vision and business case for a new system or major initiative.
• Estimating feasibility (buy vs. build, order-of-magnitude cost, alignment on goals).
• Identifying initial primary actors and the list of expected use cases.
• Estimating technical, business, resource, and schedule risks at a high level.
• Setting up the development environment or customizing the UP Development Case for the project.
• Preparing the iteration plan for the first elaboration iteration.
• Do not use for defining detailed requirements, creating reliable plans/estimates, or designing the architecture (these belong to Elaboration).

Workflow

1. Establish the Vision and Business Case. Envision high-level goals, key constraints, and business justification (Vision and Business Case artifacts).
2. Determine Feasibility. Evaluate technical feasibility, buy vs. build decisions, and order-of-magnitude (unreliable) cost ranges.
3. Identify System Scope and Actors. List primary actors and expected use cases. Write perhaps 10-20% of use cases in detail to obtain realistic insight into scope, leaving the rest as names.
4. Identify Critical Non-Functional Requirements. Document key non-functional requirements (Supplementary Specification) that have major architectural impact.
5. Establish Glossary and Key Terminology. Capture crucial domain terms to align stakeholders.
6. Construct the Risk List. Identify major technical, business, resource, and schedule risks, along with mitigation strategies.
7. Build Proof-of-Concepts. Create low-fidelity prototypes or run programming experiments for "show stopper" technical questions if needed.
8. Plan the Next Step. Define the iteration plan for the first elaboration iteration. Estimate a low-precision guess for elaboration phase duration/effort (Phase Plan).
9. Define the Development Case. Customize the UP steps and artifacts to fit the specific project's scale and constraints.

Red Flags

• Inception lasts more than a few weeks.
• Attempting to define most of the requirements.
• Expecting project plans or estimates to be reliable.
• Defining the architecture (which should be done iteratively in Elaboration).
• Having no Business Case or Vision artifact.
• Writing all use cases in detail (or writing none of them in detail).
• Believing the sequence of work must be: 1) define all requirements; 2) design architecture; 3) implement.

Verification

• A clear business case and high-level vision have been established.
• Basic project feasibility (technical, financial, buy/build) has been evaluated.
• Primary actors and expected use cases have been identified.
• At least 10% (but no more than 20%) of the use cases have been written in detail to validate scope.
• Key non-functional requirements with major architectural impact are documented in the Supplementary Specification.
• Major technical, business, resource, and schedule risks are recorded in a Risk List.
• A low-precision phase plan/effort guess for Elaboration is defined.
• An Iteration Plan for the first elaboration iteration is created.
• The UP Development Case has been customized for the project's scale and constraints.