-. -_~.

--
__- - -- -___ -~ ________-.
DEVELOPING A
RAD, .STAN DARD
A UK consortium has
identified the special
characteristics of RAD
projects and published a
first version of a
development standard.
The three critical success
factors are easy access
to end users, a stable
and skilled development
team, and a commercial
application.
DON MILLINGTON
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
IENNIFER STAPLETON
logica UK, ltd.
54
I n early 1994, end-user or-
ganizati& and software-tool
sizes ho71) the work is done;
+ use first-class configura-
1 pm-t and, if the project quali-
fies, an outline of a develop-
vendors - joined later by a tion-management procedures, ment plan. Next, developers
sprinkling of academics - es- because every change may be conduct a b~s~~z~.~~~tu~y, which
tablished the Dynamic Sys- reversed; defines the business area, lists
terns Development Method ~ l motivate teams to a- prioritized functions, and out-
Consortiutn. Their goal was ~ chiev-e business objectives, lines a prototyping plan.
to develop and evolve con- rather than simply complete In the third phase, devel-
tinuously a public-domain assigned tasks; opers run a firlzrtional-mol~el it-
method for rapid application 4 integrate testing through emtion, producing a functional
development. Objectives in- ~ out the life cycle; prototype, a statement of non-
eluded publishing a frame- + base time and cost esti- functional requirements, and
work for the method, pro- mations on the functionality of an implementation strategy.
moting it, providing training i the end products rather than , They then begin a clesi@nzd-
and certification, and so on. expected development activi- bdrl itemtiox, producing a
The first version of the ties; tested syst:m that meets all
DSDM proposed standard t focus risk assessment on hmctional and nonfunctional
was published early this pear. system functionalin; rather requir&nents. In the third and
It identifies three factors that ~ than system construction; and , fourth phases, developers
are critical for RAD methods: ~ + baseline high-level re- identi@ prototypes, agree to a
the end-user community must ~ quirements so that they are 1 schedule, create a prototype,
have a committed senior staff flexihle enough to be decom- and review the prototype.
that allows developers easy ac-
cess to end users, the develop-
posed during development. Each aspect of this iterative
The DSDM is more con- cycle is time-boxed: a specific
ment team must be stable and cerned with products than ac- time limit is set, with a norm
have well-established skills,
and the application area must
1 tivities that produce them. of three iterations for initial
The standard thus specifies investigation, retinement, and
be commercial, with flexible the products to be achieved, consolidation. The DSDM of-
initial requirements and a and leaves the techniques to be fers guidelines for managing
clearly defined user group. used and their notations open this iterative process.
In addition to these critical and flexible. ~ In the fifth and final phase,
success factors, the proposed i developers implement the sys-
standard recommends that ~ tem in the users environment,
RAD projects DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
+ make business require- ~
~ providing documentation and
training.
ments a priority, as opposed to ~ 4s Figure I shows, the
the quality of the systems op- DSDM development life cycle Particular features. Once
erational characteristics;
+ take a product-based
,
~
is, divided into fjve phases. ~ $e;otn;i;r~D~;~~;;~~;
Fn-st, developers conduct a
view, which emphasizes what study to determine whether or framework, its technical work
the work produces and which not a particular project meets group proceeded to establish
is more flexible than an activ- the criteria for RAD success. task groups to define differ-
iv-based view, which empha- They then issue aj&sibility w ( ent aspects of DSDM,
_____~~. ..~ ~-~ -
~--~____
including project manage-
ment, personnel, tools and
techniques, quality assurance,
and software procurement.
In each area, work and task
groups generated proposals, re-
fined them, and submitted
them to the full consortium for
approval. To meet the objec-
tive of having Version 1 avail-
able by January 1995, the
groups used time-boxes to limit
refinement time.
Project management. In
general, project management
includes estimating resource
needs and scheduling and
monitoring activities and pro-
ject resources - particularly
staffing.
Although Version 1 recom-
mends established methods for
life-cycle systems development,
it also looks toward the devel-
opment of techniques and tools
that are better suited to RAD -
and to DSDM in particular.
For example, the plan is to
build estimating guidelines on
the availability of data from the
pilot use of Version 1. These
guidelines should reflect the
time-boxing constraint, which
replaces the question How
longwill be required to perform
activity X? by the question
How much of the system can
be developed with Y person-
months of resource?
Personnel. Because R4D
makes unique demands on
developers and users, DSDIM
recommends the use of small
teams (fewer than seven peo-
ple) that include both users and
developers. This makes con-
munication easier and encour-
ages the good working rela-
tionships critical for success.
-Although specific roles are
identified for team memhers -
such as technical manager,
team leader, scribe, visionary,
and adviser-user - an individ-
ual can fill several roles over
the course of development.
DSDIM emphasizes the use of a
team that carries a project
through to its conclusion.
Tools and techniques. The
intention of DSDLM is not to
mandate the use of specific
techniques or particular tools.
Its emphasis instead is on the
products of each stage. It
identifies default techniques
to support the creation of
products and includes both
structured and object-orient-
ed methods.
Fig-m-e 1. Five phases of the DSDM development life cycle.
TFe bold lines indicate tramition amongAphases.- (Fi-am
DSDM Consortium; wed with permission.)
Quality assurance. In
DSDM, quality assurance is
aimed at delivering a system
that performs as the business
requires. Although these
requirements may not be
recorded in any formal speci-
fication, developers meet this
goal by running iterative tests
during all stages of the DSD,M
development, focusing on the
system components most
critical for business success.
sortium membership grew to
about 60 organizations, repre-
senting a wide range of UK
commercial institutions and a
few academic institntions with
a keen interest in RAD. In re-
sponse to interest from outside
the UK, plans were establish
ed for wider participation in the
developmen;and use of DSDM.
Although meetings to discuss
DSDM and DSDM seminars
have been held in the Neth-
erlands, Scandinavia, and Aus-
tralia, the plans to manage the
Consortiums activities outside
the UK are still tentative.
Software procurement. In-
creasingly, when one compa-
ny provides software to anoth-
er, a legal contract is involved.
Such contracts usually include
a formal specification, w-hich
is not required as part of
DSDM. Instead, the standard
identities alternative bases for
establishing and monitoring
contractual relationships and
provides guidelines for specif-
ic documents, such as
Version 2 of the DSDlM
Manual is scheduled to be pub-
lished in January 1996. In the
interim, the method is being
used on a trial basis by DSDM
Consortium members with ex-
tensive R4D experience who
other methods.
Several companies have
been accredited to run one-day
awareness cou,ses and longer
practitioner courses on
DSDLM. Potential practitioners
must have at least six months
practical RAD experience and
pass an oral examination before
certification is granted. Staff
members from a few compa-
nies, such as British Aimays, FI
Group, and MDA Computing,
have already been certified.
For details on the consor-
tium and the availability of the
DSDM manual, contact the
DSDM Consortium Secret-
ariat, The Coach House,
Church Hill, Kingsnorth, AAsh-
ford, Kent TN23 3EG, LK +
Invitation to Tender and are looking for problems and twer in the DepartmerIt of Com-
Vendor Proposal. new ideas. At the same time, putw Science. Unizwsi~ojStratb-
~ working groups are creating c&k, Glasgow UK.
DSDM STATUS
During its first year, con-
material to enhance Version 1
in a range of areas, including
system maintenance, reuse, and
the relationship of DSDM to
IEEE SOFTWARE 55
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