One of the objectives of the process is to ensure that the expectations of all parties are synchronized and consistent. The periodic Status Assessment provides a mechanism for managing everyone's expectations throughout the project lifecycle. 
Role:  Project Manager 
Optionality/Occurrence:  Typically at the end of an iteration.
Templates and Reports: 
Examples: 
UML Representation:  Not applicable.
More Information:   
Input to Activities:    Output from Activities:   

Purpose To top of page

Status Assessments provide a mechanism for addressing, communicating, and resolving management issues, technical issues, and project risks. Continuous open communication with objective data derived directly from ongoing activities and the evolving product configurations are mandatory in any project. These project snapshots provide the basis for management's attention. While the period may vary, the forcing function needs to capture the project history.

Note that Status Assessments are different from milestone reviews.

Timing To top of page

This artifact is created periodically, typically at the end of an iteration, and sometimes more often for very large projects where iterations last several months.

It is not maintained or updated.

Responsibility To top of page

A Project Manager is responsible for the Status Assessment.

Tailoring To top of page

The Status Assessment may be combined with the Iteration Assessment if the iterations are frequent (one each month). If iterations are lengthy, there will be a need for intermediate Status Assessments.

Additional Information To top of page

A lot of the information in the Status Assessment is copied from other sources to provide a comprehensive source of information for the people assessing the project. Because the Status Assessment is not maintained, there is no concern about keeping the information consistent with the evolving system.



Rational Unified Process   2003.06.13