One process is much larger
And the other’s way too small
And the full UML that OMG gives you
Is incomprehensible to all . . .

(Sing to the tune of “Go Ask Alice” by Jefferson Airplane)

In theory, every single aspect of the UML is potentially useful, but in practice, there never seems to be enough time to do modeling, analysis, and design. There’s always pressure from management to jump to code, to start coding prematurely because progress on software projects tends to get measured by how much code exists.

The ICONIX Process is a minimalist, streamlined approach that focuses on that area that lies in between use cases and code. Its emphasis is on what needs to happen at that point in the life cycle where you’re starting out: you have a start on some use cases, and now you need to do good analysis and design.