Notice how you would organise your project team for RAD-type project. What leadership practices would this need by the project leader and what would the team members have to perform? How, and at which points, would you include the users?
RAD needs, for its success, a close and ongoing relationship among developers and users. The real organisation may depend onto the skills accessible on the development team, for illustration:
•When the analysts have the skills to make software themselves, they might themselves work along with the users to make and estimate prototypes; it represents, in result, a return of the old ‘analyst/programmer’ function.
•Or else, analysts and developers will have to form tiny joint teams to work along with the users.
A main issue for project leaders into a RAD environment is what may be termed ‘expectation management’. All the users and the developers also should be kept focused on the (restricted) objectives of the stage into hand and should also is encouraged to maintain to the frequently-tight timescales for the stage. Users frequently also require convincing that they can forego several features in the recent stage but that they will get this in a later stage. There is frequently the additional complexity that user management want something unlike – frequently less - by the ‘coal-face’ users of the system and the project leader should ensure which the views of both constituencies are considered and managed.
Users should be involved at all stages of a RAD project, by initial definition of needs – however generalised – by the development of prototypes to the testing of the finished system increments.