Rational Unified Process
Although the Rational Unified Process (RUP) is independent of the UML, the two are often talked about together. So I think it's worth saying a few things about it here.
Although RUP is called a process, it actually is a process framework, providing a vocabulary and loose structure to talk about processes. When you use RUP, the first thing you need to do is choose a development case: the process you are going to use in the project. Development cases can vary widely, so don't assume that your development case will look that much like any other development case. Choosing a development case needs someone early on who is very familiar with RUP: someone who can tailor RUP for a particular project's needs. Alternatively, there is a growing body of packaged development cases to start from.
Whatever the development case, RUP is essentially an iterative process. A waterfall style isn't compatible with the philosophy of RUP, although sadly it's not uncommon to run into projects that use a waterfall-style process and dress it up in RUP's clothes.
All RUP projects should follow four phases.
Inception makes an initial evaluation of a project. Typically in inception, you decide whether to commit enough funds to do an elaboration phase. Elaboration identifies the primary use cases of the project and builds software in iterations in order to shake out the architecture of the system. At the end of elaboration, you should have a good sense of the requirements and a skeletal working system that acts as the seed of development. In particular, you should have found and resolved the major risks to the project. Construction continues the building process, developing enough functionality to release. Transition includes various late-stage activities that you don't do iteratively. These may include deployment into the data center, user training, and the like.
There's a fair amount of fuzziness between the phases, especially between elaboration and construction. For some, the shift to construction is the point at which you can move into a predictive planning mode. For others, it merely indicates the point at which you have a broad vision of requirements and an architecture that you think is going to last the rest of the project.
Sometimes, RUP is referred to as the Unified Process (UP). This is usually done by organizations that wish to use the terminology and overall style of RUP without using the licensed products of Rational Software. You can think of RUP as Rational's product offering based on the UP, or you can think of RUP and UP as the same thing. Either way, you'll find people who agree with you.
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