"Motivation of Players Cru

eighth in a se-
ries on rapid
applications de-
velopment
(RAD), a meth-
odology de- —
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

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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,

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z
g fy
se

ra
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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.

!.— Toa large extent, the same users play

the RAD Life Cycle:

Joint-Reguirements-Planning
And Joint Application-

Design Phases

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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 Lokičnt
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 |

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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
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