In RUP a worker is a definition of the activities and responsibilities of one or more project members. In other methods and processes this is usually called a role.

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Update:

RUP has changed the terminology and now only uses the term "role" when describing a system.

The term "worker" is still used in the "business modelling" part of RUP, but then only as "business worker".

"Worker" is the kayfabe term used in professional wrestling meaning someone who is giving the impression to the fans that the match is real, but it is really being worked, as opposed to a shooter.

Work"er (?), n.

1.

One who, or that which, works; a laborer; a performer; as, a worker in brass.

Professors of holiness, but workers of iniquity. Shak.

2. Zool.

One of the neuter, or sterile, individuals of the social ants, bees, and white ants. The workers are generally females having the sexual organs imperfectly developed. See Ant, and White ant, under White.

 

© Webster 1913.