"Motivation of Players Cru eighth in a se- ries on rapid applications de- velopment (RAD), a meth- odology de- â signed to give much faster re- sults than the traditional life cycle. a nika As we make j: MARY | machines ever Hi | easier to use, the | work of building systems becomes more of a sociological problem and less of a technical one. Many of the elements of RAD are in- tended to improve the facility for hu- man communication. So the choice of participants in the life cycle must be based more on their skills in human in- teraction. Rapid applications develop- ment, like team sports, depends greatly on the skills of certain critical players them well. in team sports, excellent eguipment. is only one aspect in a team's formula for velopment, excellent tools are needed, but people must know how to use the tools and work together as a highly co- signed methodology. As discussed in last week's column, cle process: the reguirements-planning phase, the user-design phase, the con- struction phase and the cutover phase. The functions performed by critical players in the first. two phases of the RAD life cycle are shown in the figure. Reguirements planning is done in a user joint reguirements planning (JRP) workshop. A team of high-level users identifies the reguirements under the guidance of a workshop leader. Members y of the reguirements-planning team must V be able to think creatively about how | operations could be changed by using | the system. They must be able to make (one about the value of who must know their roles and perform ordinated team trained to use a well-de- there are four phases in the RAD life-cy- They are, therefore, more commi the process, unlike in the lengthy tional life cycle. NEU ] 4 ik % ou i b, With the RAD life cycle, accountable for it because they will probably be there when it becomes op"'' erational. They will have a strong inceh:.'. tive to make it succeed. If the initiation, ' of the project is far back in the past, /'/', ' - this accountability is lost. ⏠' bis clude the following; Key members of the end-user team 6 The executive owner, sometimes - called executive sponsor, a high-level ;:. user executive who funds the system and "owns" it. This executive must be success. Team members must be highly .. ( how to work well together. For fast de- | | Zooming In on PC WEEKNAPPLICATION DEVELOP tted to. Na 'wa $ The training manager, the person re- the managers. ? who start a project are more easily held INTELLIGENCE Mr 4, 4 z g fy se ra sze! Äal ii Emi ta ifications are needed before cutover. sponsible for training users in how to use the system. This person organizes 4... the design and creation of training ma- V? terials and plans the training process. ' "The training manager may be from the information-systems (IS) community. To ensure that the users are fully in- -, volved, groups of key users are selected in. ' to participate in every phase. They may a, form the following groups: a reguire- ' ments-planning team, a user-design | team, a construction-assistance team, a ' user review board and a cutover team. !.â Toa large extent, the same users play the RAD Life Cycle: Joint-Reguirements-Planning And Joint Application- Design Phases m Ti MT bi gr ir bj ile. PE raj ral k pe. JR A de "ee ku, J Re Ba V bja ne MN da ' si ! sui pe aa sl 4 j vise sa ji ki Mi: hura ĹĄ i " z ij kma a J k 5 L A A | f Fi : k.d m, : | 1 ] ur m 1 s v J tu He li "a, s j : ' | Ww ; mat j n-' L JI | pi dod, x 8) 9 % a, ke 4 da Hi 4 ba | "m ] Miti k ak s ani 6 -a | | , ba. Äi | 1 A 4 - | HI i s! ' a, j ) H zi m ma na BF RE Ml) Z Ĺži PE "tna, p zb Ra , LEE MN . m pp di i in bim H k Oh | t m a Le mm? k 4 pren ae lali uli Be: REN (IE â.- ein ile ua .. soÄ; Mn | i de MN Ueti, " Retivit, ahn Avaktan struction and decides whether any mod- FEBRUARY 12, 1990 jal to Success of RAD Process % Human-factors expert, a specialist on human factoring who is responsible for ' usability testing. . 6 Data-modeling expert, a specialist ' with experience in data modeling who can create data models rapidly and competently. 6 Repository manager, an executive re- sponsible for the integrated computer: aided software engineering (I-CASE) re- pository and its integrity. He or she may control what reusable constructs are in the repository. The repository manager is particularly important in an environ- ment of information engineering or reuS- able design. Teams are very important in the RAD life cycle. The reguirements-planning - team and the user-design team are to- gether for a short period. The construction team, if it works well, should stay together for many projects. The players in each team should maximize positive interaction. The members of the construction team may be changed if necessary to increase its effectiveness. Keep the Ball Rolling At each phase of a project, certain ac- tivities have to move fast, and so the eo people who can make this happen must || | pse deadlines and work well under pressure LokiÄnt to meet. the deadlines. Those who must, work guickly are dif- ferent, at different stages of the life cycle. At the start, it is critical that man- agement, including the executive own- er, initiate the project. guickly, cutting through any potential political delays or bureaucracy. At the reguirements- planning stage, the key users must: par- ticipate in the JRP workshop and, fol- lowing that, users must, move swiftly to the JAD workshop. During construc- tion, the IS team using the I-CASE tool set for detailed design and code genera- tion must be geared to move guickly. At the end of the life cycle, those re- sponsible for training and cutover must also move guickly. To avoid delays at any part of the life cycle, each phase must, come into play on time, like a well-produced stage show. The players for each phase must, be ready to play their role; they must be highly motivated to move fast and work hard for their part of the project. Suc- cess of the process depends on skilled | |". planning that is highly coupled to care- maje, SuCccessive roles in these groups; thus,a Next week | will discuss the critical polni! ; large number of people is | % ban] x F hi A k je 4 FRA: Hr :. i je" po T i LU 1 i.e not reguired. | functions performed by the JAD user- 4 ,/ , Key members of the IS development, team and t structio 4 1. team include the following: T S The project. anag ada) Techn k Transfer Institute, struct 741 10th St, Santa Monica, Calif. Hi IY 90402 (213 SAO A con- jej a specialist, who tact Savant, 2 New St., Carnforth, and conducta the worksh |. Lancs. LA5 9BX United Kingdom tna Jano he porabopa | Zone za zo got