Rapid Application Development (RAD) Exercise – Assignment Overview

This coursework requires you to form teams of between three and seven members to carry out a Rapid Application Development (RAD) exercise. Each team will appoint members to one of the following roles:

1.Facilitator

2.Scribe

3.Senior Management Representative

4.User Representative

5.Developer

The roles are described in more detail in the next section of this document. It will be noted that the ideal team size is five. If the team numbers greater or fewer than five then there will either be more than one team member per role or more than one role per team member. Please see module tutor if this occurs.

The team is required to develop a simple system using the RAD methodology and a suitable development environment. The precise domain and scope may be chosen by the team, but needs to be confirmed by module tutor. An example would be a property management system for a letting agency developed using MS Access and consisting of two or three tables with a small number of associated forms and queries or a prototype of a mobile application. 

Clearly, the development should begin with a requirement for a system from the user representative(s) and management representative(s). This should take account of the known capabilities of the developers.

Facilitator

The focus of the facilitator is to help with how the discussion is proceeding rather than the content of the discussion i.e. the facilitator's responsibility is to address the journey, rather than the destination. Additionally, they should:

a.mediate in disputes between other parties

b.motivate resistant participants

Associated Tools: Trello (or another Kanban board system); Word;

Scribe

The major role of the scribe is to record decisions made at each workshop. Additionally, the scribe should:

a.keep a project diary to assist team members in understanding and reflecting on what has occurred and also to assist with writing up the assignment

b.record instances of conflict and conflict resolution within the team.

Developer

The developer must:

a.gather requirements from other team members

b.produce a prototype design for presentation during a workshop

c.listen to criticisms and feedback

d.produce further prototype designs for presentation at further workshops until a final version is agreed

e.produce a working prototype for presentation at a workshop then repeat steps c and d.

Management Representative

The management representative must:

a.understand the strategy of the chosen organisation

b.ensure that the requirements of the system reflects the strategic needs of the organisation

c.establish a budget for the proposed system development

d.ensure that the costs of the system development do not exceed the budget

User Representative

The user representative must:

a.ensure that the requirements of the proposed system adequately reflect the needs of the people who are going to use the system

b.work with the developer to refine the prototype system

Associated Tools

All Team Members

Work together to complete the assignment in an effective and timely manner.