KE O2 APPLIED INTELLIGENCE RAD Technigues Are a Must for hetooling the I5 Factory IS must not be a bottleneck that im- pedes an organization from evolving and adapting to competitive challenges. The development processes used by IS need to match the speed of organizational change within the business. As business opportunities come up, information sys- tems must, be able to evolve in step with those changes. The overall objectives of the IS appli- cations-development, process should be to achieve high speed, high guality and low cost. Rapid applications-development tech- nigues that minimize the time between user design and cutover have four essen- tial aspects: tools, methodology, person- This 1s the sec- ond of a series of articles on rapid applica- tions develop- ment (RAD), a development methodology de- signed to be much faster than the tradt- tional method. When the tech- nology of major JAMES — MARI IN industry sectors slips into obsoles- thing that could have been done even better. Integrating the entire family of technigues for fast development is a complex act. Therefore, one should list all the re- guired technigues and then create a de- velopment organization and methodolo- gy that-integrates these technigues most effectively. RAD technigues should fit into a well- planned infrastructure designed to inte grate systems with shared data and re- usable designs. This would include an architecture for connectivity and inter- operability as well as an architecture for information engineering. LJEC. 25, 1989/ JAN, 1, 1990 user capabilities better, enforce techni- cal integrity in complex analysis and de- sign; create bug-free systems; create sys- tems with excellent human factoring; create systems that are easy to main: tain; create very complex systems; and create systems that can evolve continu- ously, sometimes becoming rich in func- tionality. The guality of the applications-devel- opment process may be defined as fol: lows: meeting the business regulrements or users' reguirements) as effectively as possible at the time the system comes into operation. This is fundamentally different from the usual definition: conforming to the cence, they become ill-eguipped to sup- port new competitive thrusts and must retool. Failure to retool when needed slowly puts corporations out of business. The core computer applications in most corporations are obsolete and frag- ile and cannot. be maintained easily. They were created with third-generation languages, before modern design tech- nigues were understood. They were built for dumb terminals or bateh processing, not for powerful desktop machines con- nected by LANSs to database servers, re- guiring worldwide connectivity. An enterprise s information systems collectively can be thought of as an in- formation factory. In most enterprises, the information factory is badly in need of retooling, Some enterprises have developed a top-level strategy for retooling their in- formation facilities. Some have driven hard to evolve a rapid applications-de- velopment environment. Many, however, have no such strategy and are building non-integrated systems with slow and obsolete methodologies. The following actions are vital in re- tooling the information-systems (IS) or- ganization: € Conduct a technology impact study to determine how the basic business of the enterprise should change to maximize the opportunities presented by rapid technological change. e Evaluate how the corporation should be re-engineered to take advantage of new technology. 6 Establish a program for replacing the core information systems with the most effective new technology. New technolo- gy may include integrated com Nela ald- ed software engineering (CASE common repositories, ia ti ing architectures, information engineer- ing and methodologies optimized for high -speed development. e Establish a RAD environment throughout the entire IS organization. ' Establish a culture of reusability throughout IS. ' Drive for an environment of open interconnectivity and software portabil- ity across the entire enterprise. e Establish intercorporate network links to most t partners, € Ensure that all knowledge workers have a na je level of computerized - knowledge and processing power. ' Change management structure to take full advantage of innovative systems. A corporatlon taking these actions ahead of is competition will gain a ma- Jor advantage. — Although the infrastructure takes The Building Blocks Of Rapid Application Development va Benefits of RAD Technigues Inelude High (uality and pev usobl Low Costs ; | pari? j Low Development Cost Low —— | Maintenance | Costs Business Needs Better High Ouality Meets Uv John Avakian IS must not impede a firm from adapting to competitive challenges. Development processes used by IS must match the speed of organi: nel and management. RAD technigues are based on the use of the most power- ful available tool and on flexible meth- odologies that are optimized for high- speed development. The technigues also reguire a high level of end-user involvement, and work best with bright, highly motivated peo- ple eager to learn new technigues and willing to take on new roles. In addition, the success of RAD technigues depends on changes in management. RAD projects must, be managed for speed. If any one of these ingredienta is inadeguate, development will take longer. When analyzing success stories with RAD, there always seems to be some- tional inte within the business. time to evolve, once the it exists, appli- cations development under RAD can proceed more rapidly and effectively. The re-engineering of IS will reguire the use of powerful new tools, including highly integrated CASE tools; intelligent repositories; planning, analysis and de- sign workstations; code generators capa: ble of generating 100 percent of an ap plication from design specifications; Brototpliui tools; and rule-based analy- sis technigues. These tools, which are available now, help ensure the development of higher: guality sprlicatcna at a lower cost. They also provide the means to do the following: meet business needs better; nt written specifications as effectively as possible. In the traditional systems-develop- ment life cycle, the written specifica- tions are frozen before the technical de- sign, coding and testing are done. Often, they are frozen 18 months before the system becomes operational. During this time, business needs may change sub- stantially, so the system may not meet those needs when it becomes operation: al. The users have to make do with an inadeguate system. RAD technigues reguire that users be thoroughly involved in the design of a system and that the design is in a com- puterized form that can be driven into code as guickly as possible. Improving System 0uality In addition to avoiding obsolete speci- fications, RAD reguires several factors, summarized in the figure, that improve the guality of the delivered system. These include: | € the use of small teams of highly: moti- Je analysts; € the reuse of well-proven templates, parts, components or systems derived from an industry-standard CASE repos- itory; € the use of an .automated CASE tool set, which enforces technical integrity in modeling and designing the system; and € the extensive involvement of end us- ers in the design and construction of the system, allowing the details to be adjust- ed if necessary. The use of RAD technigues leads to lower cost, higher guality and greater conformance of applications with busi: ness needs. This is truly a win-win situa- tion. Systems developed with rapid ap- plications-development technigues meet the needs of the users better and have lower maintenance costs. | Next week, I will discuss how the sup- port of top management can be gained through periodic measurement and re- porting of produciiii naresti Bo tl? si peki a a EEA s ; ' un EL A CE i FA aa BA, zla sj a k H. "i " poi ij | kili .. pesti mn o —ikm- iu k ks pasel X" sose lazi! a re Z k. srh ee Pi SEE MEN LA |! ' 4 " 4 [J sh ka k . jan s T kup d am, m jina m Co pmesi - bil d Ke g x) s - zami Va zN jih Ji zdaj uka poe MELJE mai ga - a LJ oe [ze Lija ga fru TRR ee a ki a čwos pain 5%, 1 ra di ai Lon k A zi bi zal am Hi da Net M artin pojbo Series. or more or- <5. > mation on this volume, call ( rraooJ 5 242. I MI. 1240: Toy tale aon seminar ————— contact (e in the United States and sa a 402 ( 213 ) 394 8505. mm n burope o con. mo tat Savant, 2 New St, Carnforihh, ———— LAS 9BX United K Ki pdom — Z Me OBRA)IBA 505. z IE O vated and highly trained end usersand.