Office of the Chief Government Information Officer AN INTRODUCTION TO RAPID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT (RAD) [G47a] Version: 1.7 Oct 2009 © The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China The contents of this document remain the property of and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express permission of the Government of the HKSAR. AN INTRODUCTION TO RAD CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. PURPOSE ..................................................................................................................................................... 1-1 2. SCOPE .......................................................................................................................................................... 2-1 3. REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................. 3-1 3.1 STANDARDS .................................................................................................................................................3-1 3.2 OTHER REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................3-1 4. DEFINITIONS AND CONVENTIONS ..................................................................................................... 4-1 4.1 DEFINITIONS ................................................................................................................................................4-1 4.2 CONVENTIONS ............................................................................................................................................4-1 5. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 5-1 5.1 WHAT IS RAD? .............................................................................................................................................5-1 5.2 HISTORY OF RAD ........................................................................................................................................5-1 5.3 RAD IN SDLC ................................................................................................................................................5-2 5.4 ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS OF RAD .........................................................................................................5-3 5.4.1 Tools ....................................................................................................................................................5-3 5.4.2 Methodology ........................................................................................................................................5-3 5.4.3 People ..................................................................................................................................................5-3 5.4.4 Management .........................................................................................................................................5-4 6. BENEFITS OF RAD .................................................................................................................................... 6-1 7. RAD STRUCTURAL MODEL OVERVIEW ........................................................................................... 7-1 7.1 STRUCTURE COMPONENT ........................................................................................................................7-1 7.2 OVERVIEW OF STRUCTURE .....................................................................................................................7-2 7.3 RAD STAGES ................................................................................................................................................7-3 7.3.1 Requirements Planning Stage ..............................................................................................................7-3 7.3.2 User Design Stage ................................................................................................................................7-5 7.3.3 Rapid Construction Stage ....................................................................................................................7-7 7.3.4 Transition Stage ...................................................................................................................................7-9 8. MAJOR RAD ROLES ................................................................................................................................. 8-1 8.1 FACILITATOR ...............................................................................................................................................8-1 8.2 SCRIBE ...........................................................................................................................................................8-1 8.3 SWAT TEAM .................................................................................................................................................8-1 8.4 MODEL ADMINISTRATOR .........................................................................................................................8-1 8.5 DATABASE ADMINISTRATOR ..................................................................................................................8-1 8.6 PLANNING WORKSHOP TEAM .................................................................................................................8-2 8.7 USER DESIGN TEAM ...................................................................................................................................8-2 8.8 CONSTRUCTION ASSISTANCE TEAM .....................................................................................................8-2 8.9 TRANSITION TEAM ....................................................................................................................................8-2 9. ROLE/TASK MATRIX ............................................................................................................................... 9-1 10. MAJOR RAD TECHNIQUES .................................................................................................................. 10-1 10.1 USER WORKSHOP .....................................................................................................................................10-1 10.2 FACILITATION ...........................................................................................................................................10-1 10.3 TIMEBOX MANAGEMENT .......................................................................................................................10-1 10.4 PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT ....................................................................................................................10-2 10.5 LOGICAL DATA MODELLING .................................................................................................................10-2 10.6 BUSINESS PROCESS MODELLING .........................................................................................................10-2 10.7 FUNCTION DECOMPOSITION .................................................................................................................10-3 10.8 INTERACTION ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................................10-3 AN INTRODUCTION TO RAD CONTENTS 10.9 PROTOTYPING ...........................................................................................................................................10-3 10.10 CLUSTER ANALYSIS.................................................................................................................................10-4 10.11 ENTITY STATE ANALYSIS ......................................................................................................................10-4 10.12 EVENT DEPENDENCY ANALYSIS ..........................................................................................................10-4 AN INTRODUCTION TO RAD PURPOSE 1. PURPOSE The objectives of this document are: • to introduce the RAD concepts; • to give an overview of the RAD task structure; • to describe the major roles in RAD methodology; and • to introduce the essential RAD techniques. 1-1 AN INTRODUCTION TO RAD SCOPE 2. SCOPE Rapid Application Development (RAD) refers to a development life cycle designed to give faster development and higher quality systems than the traditional one. This document gives an introduction of the Rapid Application Development methodology in OGCIO. Some of the main components of RAD are described and explained. End users and potential tenderers are suggested to read this guide to understand the RAD concepts. For details about RAD and related techniques/methodologies, please refer to other manuals listed in Section 3. 2-1 AN INTRODUCTION TO RAD REFERENCES 3. REFERENCES 3.1 STANDARDS • An Introduction to PRINCE [G38a] • RAD Procedures Guide [G47] • RAD Documentation Guide [G48] 3.2 OTHER REFERENCES Nil 3-1 AN INTRODUCTION TO RAD DEFINITIONS AND CONVENTIONS 4. DEFINITIONS AND CONVENTIONS 4.1 DEFINITIONS Nil 4.2 CONVENTIONS Nil 4-1 AN INTRODUCTION TO RAD INTRODUCTION 5. INTRODUCTION 5.1 WHAT IS RAD? RAD refers to a development life cycle designed to give much faster development and higher quality systems than the traditional life cycle. It is designed to take advantage of powerful development software like