8. RAD: User Groups

The idea is to actively involve users for developing requirements rather than the analyst trying to collate everything to produce a Requirements Document.

user groupThis has some advantages

  • User feels ownership of the project from the beginning
  • Greater user satisfaction
  • Better quality user requirements
  • Fewer late changes

This is done through a series of collaborative workshops and discussion groups, sometimes called Joint Application Development (JAD) with the word 'Joint' implying that the user is as much involved with developing the system as the development team.

Due to the speed of Rapid Application Development it is hoped that the requirements do not change too much from the start to the end of the project.

Fewer changes results in lower cost, quicker delivery and better quality.

The idea was first proposed back in the 1970s by two engineers who then began teaching the method in the 1980s. The Rapid Application Development approach then combined the method with other ideas.

 

 

challenge see if you can find out one extra fact on this topic that we haven't already told you

Click on this link: JAD