An introduction to

Rapid Application
Development
(Agile concepts)
COMP1787 Lecture Teaching Week 3
Dr. Aditi Rawal
Rapid Application Development
(RAD)
Where it all started
In this lecture we will introduce Rapid Application
Development as an approach to systems
development.
Over the next few weeks we will look at
methods/frameworks that support this approach.
What is RAD (1)?

• It is a systems development approach suggested by

James Martin in 1990
• He published a seminal text:
• Martin J. (1990), Rapid Application Devt, Macmillian (USA).
• He developed the concept of RAD at IBM in the 1980s
before publishing in 1990.
• His book discussed the concept of Rapid Application
Development
• He did not propose a methodology – this came later from other
sources
What is RAD (2)?

• It is a systems development concept that

products can be developed faster and to a
higher quality standard through:
• Harnessing the knowledge of the user throughout the
development life cycle
• The user is an integral part of the development team
What is RAD (3)?

• Agreeing high level requirements at the beginning

of the project but:
• Using workshops or focus groups to gather them
initially
• Refining them during the development cycle with the
user

• Using the concept of prototyping to work with

users and develop/revise low level requirements
What is
RAD (4)?

• Using a rigidly paced, tightly defined schedule

to ensure that something is always delivered
by any given deadline.
• This is called timeboxing.

• Using software development tools such as

visual building environments, reuse of s/w
components to reduce the time spent on
coding.
What is
RAD (5)

• Taking an:
• Iterative approach and an
• Incremental approach to achieve all of this

• Note that all of this things are concepts suggested

by the Agile approach much later – there are no
new concepts in the Agile approach they are based
on RAD
The four essential
ingredients of RAD (From James Martin
(1990))

Rapid Application Development

Tools People Management Methodology

TOOLS
• James Martin describes four essential aspects of RAD:

• RAD and Tools

• RAD life cycles depend on automated tools
• Development process should have maximum degree of
automation
• Tools required include CASE tools, prototyping tools and
integrated environments which can be used by whole life
cycle.
• Note that many of the tools on the market have, until
recently, been inadequate for fast development life cycles
RAD and
People

• RAD is highly dependent upon people

• People with specialist RAD skills are
required to be part of RAD team.
• These people include:
• Users
• Management representatives
• System developers
• Project management staff
RAD and
Manageme
nt

• Management of a RAD project is

crucial to its success.
• Tempting to ignore management
in a RAD environment:
• Isn’t prototyping all about an
‘evolving’ environment without
constraints such as time scales,
predefined requirements etc…?
RAD and
Methodolo
gy
• To achieve good results, an I.S
organisation needs a methodology
that suits both its environment
and its tool set.
• When James Martin first published his
thoughts, there was no method to
support
RAD.
• DSDM developed in 1994 and has
been refined many times since then.
RAD and Quality
Traditional view is that if you develop something
quickly you sacrifice some of the quality.
Quality is key to the success of any IT development
project (as we have already discussed)
James Martin suggested that:
High quality, lower cost and rapid development go hand-in-
hand if an appropriate development methodology is used.
RAD and Quality

High Speed
High Quality

Low cost
Why RAD is
increasingl • Response to users
y important • History of IS development cluttered
to industry with failure of IS projects that did not
(1) do what the user wanted them to do.
• Use participation is now recognised
as an important part in problem
definition and functionality design.
• A key part of the RAD philosophy is user
participation throughout the
development cycle.
Why RAD is increasingly important (2)

• Response to users (cont..)

• ‘empowering the client’ is fundamental
principle of RAD
• prototyping is built upon user-centred
activities & enables feedback from user at all
stages of development.
• Development activities such as JAD, reviews,
walk throughs etc. all include user in
complete development cycle
Why RAD is increasingly important (3)

• The modern business climate

• All organisations operate within an extremely
competitive environment where business
processes are changing rapidly to maintain
competitive edge
• Development projects with long life cycles are
unacceptable
• Also, unacceptable to deliver systems that don’t
meet needs of the user.
What
projects
are • RAD is not suitable for all types of
projects (DSDM.org)
suitable for
RAD • There are several factors seen as
useful for deciding on the suitability of
environme a given IS project to RAD development.
nt? (1)
• Type of system to which RAD is
especially seen as suitable are the
following applications…….
What projects
are suitable • The application is interactive
for RAD • the functionality is clearly visible
environment? at the user interface
(2)
• the user group is clearly
defined
• the functionality of the system
is not computationally complex
What projects
are suitable for
RAD
• The type of organisation is also
environment?
important. RAD is most suitable where
(3) the following factors are taken into
account:
• Management Involvement.
RAD needs the commitment of
senior user management to
provide significant end-user
involvement. Without such a
commitment more traditional
waterfall methods should be
considered.
What
projects
are • End-user involvement.
suitable for • Easy access by developers to end-users is
RAD imperative. The developers and users
environme should reside in the same location.
nt? (4) • The development team.
• The development team should be
committed and trained in RAD.
What
projects • Project management.
are • One of the problems with prototyping is
suitable for that it can run out of control. Good project
control must be in place
RAD
environme • Empowering the team
• The RAD team must be given authority to
nt? (5) make design decisions on a day-to-day
basis without the need for consultation
with their superiors.
What projects are suitable for RAD
environment? (6)

• The size of the project

• RAD is good for small to medium scale
projects.
• Large projects should only be considered for
a RAD approach if the project is capable of
being split up into a number of smaller
projects.
• It should the be possible to deliver each
smaller project independently.
What
projects • Team size.
are • The RAD development team must be
suitable for reasonably small in order to
RAD • reduce management concerns
environme • maintain clear lines of
nt? (7) communication
• increasing commitment to
development and ownership of the
project.
When not • RAD should not be used for:
to use • real-time or safety-critical
RAD systems
• very large organisational-wide
systems
• computationally complex
systems
• any application where the
functional requirements must be fully
understood before any programs are
written
Summar
y
• The concepts relating to RAD have
been around for a long time now (1990)
• Agile methods are built upon the
concepts of RAD
• RAD/Agile methods all advocate the
following:
• Tools
• People
• Management
• Methodology
Thank you.