Rapid Application Development, Agile Development, Joint Application Development, and Other Systems Development Approaches

Rapid application development (RAD) employs tools, techniques, and methodologies de­signed to speed application development. Vendors such as Computer Associates Interna­tional, IBM, and Oracle market fourth-generation languages and other products targeting the RAD market. Rational Software, a division of IBM, has a RAD tool, called Rational Rapid Developer, to make developing large Java programs and applications easier and faster.²^ RAD reduces paper-based documentation, automatically generates program source code, and facilitates user participation in design and development activities. It makes adapting to changing system requirements easier. Other approaches to rapid development, such as agile development or extreme programming (XP гибкой разработки или экстремального программирования (XP)), allow the systems to change as they are being developed. Agile development requires frequent face-to-face meetings with the systems de­velopers and users as they modify, refine, and test how the system meets users' needs and what its capabilities are. Some predict that agile programming will eventually be used by most IT departments because of the volatility of the business environment—the length of the traditional development life cycle can reduce a system's usefulness once it is finally completed. The agile development process is more fluid and flexible, but it can be complex and time-consuming. XP uses pairs of programmers who work together to design, test, and code parts of the systems they develop. The iterative nature итерационный повторяющийся repeating of XP helps companies develop robust крепкий strong, sturdy, robust, solid, tough systems, with fewer errors. Sabre Airline Solutions, a $2 billion airline travel company, used XP to eliminate programming errors and shorten program development times.²⁴ The com­pany manages 13 million lines of programming code in 62 software products. Sabre uses the Java programming language and XP to rapidly develop its applications.

RAD makes extensive use of the joint application development (JAD) process for data collection and requirements analysts. Originally developed by IBM Canada in the 1970s, JAD involves group meetings in which users, stakeholders, and IS professionals work together to analyze existing systems, propose possible solutions, and define the requirements of a new or modified system. JAD groups consist of both problem holders and solution providers. A group normally requires one or more top-level executives who initiate the JAD process, a group leader for the meetings, potential users, and one or more individuals who act as secretaries and clerks to record what is accomplished and to provide general support for the sessions. Many companies have found that groups can develop better requirements than individuals working independently and have assessed JAD as a very successful development technique. Today, JAD often uses group support systems (GSS) software to foster positive group interactions, while suppressing negative group behavior. Group support systems were introruced in Chapter 10

RAD should not be used on every software development project. In general, it is best suited for DSSs and MISs and less well suited for TPSs. During a RAD project, the level of participation of stakeholders and users is much higher than in other approaches. They become working members of the team and can be expected to spend more than 50 percent of their time producing project outcomes. This time commitment can be a problem if the users are needed to perform their normal business role. For this reason, RAD team participants are often taken off their normal assignments and put full-time on the RAD project. Because of the full-time commitment and intense schedule deadlines полной отдачи и интенсивного графика сроков, RAD is a high-pressure development approach that can easily result in employee burnout. Table 12.4 lists advantages and disadvantages of RAD.

Prototyping, rapid application development, agile development, and joint application envelopment are used to overcome some of the perceived disadvantages of the traditional systems development life cycle. These potential disadvantages include problems with the Traditional project planning process, slow development times, a lower success rate, and not deifying user needs. These approaches also take advantage of newer programming languages and techniques. In addition to these systems development approaches, there are a number other systems development approaches, including adaptive software development, lean soft­ware development, the Rational Unified Process (RUP), Feature-Driven Development (FDD), and dynamic systems development method адаптивная разработка программного обеспечения, постное разработки программного обеспечения, Rational Unified Process (RUP), Feature-Driven Development (FDD), и метод разработки динамических систем. Often created by computer vendors and authors of systems development books, these approaches all attempt to deliver better systems

Advantages

For appropriate projects, this approach puts an application into production sooner than any other approach.

Documentation is produced as a by-product of completing project tasks.

RAD forces teamwork and lots of interaction between users and stakeholders

This intense SDLC can burn out systems developers and other project participants.

This approach requires systems analysts and users to be skilled in RAD system development tools and RAD techniques,

RAD requires a larger percentage of stakeholders' and users' time than other approaches

The End-User Systems Development Life Cycle

Systems development initiatives arise from a wide variety of organizational areas and individuals, including users. The proliferation распространение of general-purpose information technology and the flexibility of many packaged software programs have allowed non-IS employees to independently develop information systems that meet their needs. Such employees believe that, by bypassing the formal requisitioning of resources from the IS department в обход формальных изъятие ресурсов из отдела IS, they can develop systems more quickly. In addition, these individuals often believe that they have better insight into their own needs and can develop systems better suited for their purposes. In addition, many end users are increasingly developing computer systems or solving computer-related problems for others.^2S Dennis Christensen's coworkers often call him to fix computer glitches, printer problems, or e-mail stoppages. Christensen is a marketing manager for a Michigan credit bureau and not a computer systems person.

End-user-developed systems range from the very small (e.g., a software routine to merge form letters) to those of significant organizational value (such as customer contact databases, for the Web). Adnan Osmani from Dublin, Ireland, for example, developed his own Interne browser.²⁶ "I just wanted it faster for myself," Osmani said. Like all projects, some end-user developed systems fail, and others are successful. Initially, IS professionals discounted THE value of these projects. As the number and magnitude значительность of these projects increased, however IS professionals began to realize that for the good of the entire organization, their involvement with these projects needed to increase.

Today, the term end-user systems development describes any systems development project in which the primary effort is undertaken by a combination of business managers and users. Rather than ignoring these initiatives, astute проницательный IS professionals encourage them by offering guidance and support. Technical assistance, communication of standards, and the sharing of "best practices" throughout the organization are just some of the ways IS profes­sionals work with motivated managers and employees undertaking their own systems development. In this way, end-user-developed systems can be structured as complementary дополнительный, rather than in conflict with, existing and emerging information systems. In addition, the open communication among IS professionals, managers of the affected business area and users allows the IS professionals to identify specific initiatives so that additional organizational resources, beyond those available to business managers or users, are provided for the development.

There are disadvantages of end-user systems development. Some end users don't have the training to effectively develop and test a system. Multimillion-dollar mistakes, for ex­ample, can be made using faulty spreadsheets that were never tested. Some end-user systems are also poorly documented. Then, when they are updated, errors can be introduced that make the system error prone. In addition, some end users spend time and corporate resources developing systems that were already available