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Construction Phase
During the Construction Phase,
all remaining components and application features are developed and integrated
into the product, and all features are thoroughly tested. The Construction
Phase is in some sense a manufacturing process, where emphasis is placed on
managing resources and controlling operations to optimise costs, schedules, and
quality. In this sense the management mindset undergoes a transition from the
development of intellectual property during inception and elaboration, to the
development of deployable products during construction and transition.
Many projects are large enough
that parallel construction increments can be spawned. These parallel activities
can accelerate the availability of deployable releases significantly; they can
also increase the complexity of resource management and workflow
synchronisation. A robust architecture and an understandable plan are highly
correlated. In other words, one of the critical qualities of the architecture
is its ease of construction. This is one reason why the balanced development of
the architecture and the plan is stressed during the Elaboration Phase.
The primary objectives of the
Construction Phase include:
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Minimising development costs by
optimising resources and avoiding unnecessary scrap and rework.
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Achieving adequate quality as
rapidly as practical.
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Achieving useful versions (alpha,
beta, and other test releases) as rapidly as practical.
The essential activities of the
Construction Phase are:
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Resource management, control and
process optimisation
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Complete component development
and testing against the defined evaluation criteria
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Assessment of product releases
against acceptance criteria for the vision
The outcome of the Construction
Phase is a product ready to put in the hands of its end-users. At minimum, it
consists of:
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The software product, integrated
on the adequate platform.
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Any user manual.
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A description of the current
release.
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