Successful consulting starts with
understanding the customer's needs.

Methodology provides a framework used to guide the project from conception through to completion. The Rational Unified Process (RUP) is an industry leading object-oriented methodology that focuses on the user’s goals, needs, and vision for the project. RUP empowers developers to be creative and skillful to implement the best possible design for the components within the scope of the project. The Rational Unified Process divides the project into four distinct phases: 

Inception Phase 
During the Inception phase, the vision, scope, system architecture, and users are defined for the project. The project manager will define what factors and metrics will be used to determine project success, infrastructure, and risk management. He or she will develop the project plan, coordinate schedules, and define the deliverables. 

Elaboration Phase 
The Elaboration phase consists of creating a set of documents that define the user requirements, components, and system architecture. It involves solicitation of the business requirements and rules and formulating those requirements into Use Case documentation. Object-oriented projects are designed in three stages:

Construction Phase
The Construction phase involves the building and initial testing of the components and the assembly of these components into a compiled application. This phase will consist of building the components based on the design made in the Elaboration phase. Components will be built at the same time or sequentially and then tested individually and corporately with the system. There are typically two types of components that are developed.