Practices

Practices in NUP are proven approaches and techniques that teams should adopt to ensure quality, consistency, and compliance throughout the software development lifecycle. This section documents key practices organized by category.

Practice Categories

Available Practice Guides

Practice Adoption Levels

NUP practices can be adopted at different maturity levels:

Level 1: Foundation

Essential practices that every team must implement:

Level 2: Standard

Practices that established teams should implement:

Level 3: Advanced

Practices for mature, high-performing teams:

Practice Integration with NUP Lifecycle

Discovery Phase Practices

• User research and journey mapping
• Requirements gathering techniques
• Stakeholder analysis
• Risk identification

Design Phase Practices

• Architecture decision records (ADRs)
• Design reviews
• Threat modeling
• API design first

Development Phase Practices

• Version management (semantic versioning)
• Branching strategy (Git Flow/GitHub Flow)
• Code review process
• Pair programming
• Test-driven development

Verification Phase Practices

• Automated testing pyramid
• Security scanning (SAST/DAST)
• Performance testing
• Accessibility testing

Deployment Phase Practices

• Blue-green deployments
• Canary releases
• Feature flags
• Rollback procedures

Maintenance Phase Practices

• Health checks and monitoring
• Incident response
• On-call rotations
• Post-mortems

Practice Documentation Template

Each practice in NUP follows a standard documentation format:

# Practice: [Name]

## Overview
Brief description of the practice and its purpose.

## Why This Matters
Business and technical justification.

## When to Apply
Situations where this practice is applicable.

## How to Implement

### Prerequisites
What you need before starting.

### Steps
1. Step-by-step implementation guide
2. ...

### Examples
Concrete examples and code samples.

## Verification
How to verify the practice is being followed.

## Common Pitfalls
Mistakes to avoid.

## Related Practices
Links to related practices.

## References
External resources and standards.

Practice Compliance Matrix

For regulated environments, map practices to compliance requirements:

Getting Started

1. Assess Current State - Evaluate which practices your team currently follows
2. Prioritize Gaps - Identify the most critical missing practices
3. Implement Incrementally - Start with Level 1 practices, then progress
4. Measure and Improve - Track adoption and continuously improve

Related Resources

• Guidelines - Detailed development guidelines
• Checklists - Practice verification checklists
• Tools - Tool recommendations for practices
• Code Reviews - Code review process

Compliance

This section fulfills ISO 13485 requirements for QMS general requirements (4.1), documented procedures (4.2.3), and continuous improvement (8.5), and ISO 27001 requirements for information security policies (A.5.1), secure development lifecycle (A.8.25), and operational procedures (A.5.37).

View full compliance matrix