Project Management and Software Development Processes: Integrating RUP and PMBOK

Developing a software product is a unique effort that involves dealing with activities and resources to build the desired results. The elements involved in such an effort can be seen from two perspectives: the software development process and the project management views. In order to develop a product with quality, we must provide an adequate combination of these two dimensions. However, this integration is generally not well addressed by the currently available software development processes. In this context, the PMBOK can provide the management perspective (project scope and lifecycle) while RUP, for instance, can bring the technical perspective (product scope and lifecycle). In this paper we present a model for software project management based on PMBOK and its integration with RUP. By formalizing an integrated model we can address the possibility of automating a number of tasks for software development.