ME Od

LJEC. 25, 1969/ JAN. 1, 1990

This is 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 tradi:
tional method.
When the tech:
nology of major
industry sectors
slips into obsoles-
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,
"nave 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.

' Evaluate how the corporation should

be re-engineered to take advantage of

new technology.

' Fstablish a program for replacing the

core information systems with the most

MARTIN

RAD Technigues Are a Must for Retooling the IS 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:

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 anrarchitecture

for information engineering.
Although the infrastructure takes

The Building Blocks Of Rapid Application
Development

Benefits of RAD
Technigues
Include High
Ouality and
Low Costs

Low
Development
Cost

Low

Maintenance

Cosls

High
Ouality

Meets

Business
Needs Better

John Avakan

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 fune-
tionality.

The guality of the applications-devel-
opment process may be defined as fol-
lows: meeting the business reguirements
(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
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 Ouality
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-
vated and highly trained end users and
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
8 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

IS must not impede a firm from adapting to competitive
challenges. Development processes used biy IS must match
the speed of organizational change within the business.

effective new technology. New technolo-
gy may include integrated computer-aid-
ed software engineering (CASE) tools,

common repositories, integrated comput-

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-

ing architectures, information engineer-
ing and methodologies optimized for
high -speed development.
' Establish a RAD environment
(hroughout 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.
' Establish intercorporate network links
to most trading partners.
' Ensure that all knowledge workers
have a high level of computerized
knowledge and processing power.
? Change management structure to take
full advantage of innovative systems.
A corporation taking these actions
ahead of its competition will gain a ma-
Jor advantage.

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-

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;
prototyping tools; and rule-based analy-
sis technigues.
Akaca pole enoh are available now,
Ip ensure development of higher-
guality applications at a lower cost,
They also provide the means to do the
following: meet business needs better, fit

plications-development technigues meet
the needs of the users better and have
lower maintenance costs.

Next week, | will discuss how the sup-
port of top management can be gained
through periodic measurement and re-
porting of productivity improvements. B

The concepts embodied in RAD are de-
seribed in a new volume in the James
Martin Report Series. For infor-

mation on this volume, call (800) 242-
1240. For information on seminars,

contact (in the United States and Can-
ada.) Technology Transfer institute,
741 10th St, Santa Monica, Calif,
Poka (28 jeba ti g skriti con-
tact Savant, lew arnj se
Lancs., LA5 9BX United Kingdom

(0524) 734 505. m