RAD and ARAD
Barbara Tacchino

Summary
 RAD (Rapid Application Development)
 Definition and features
 Development cycle
 Team, tools, documentation, problems
 ARAD (Architected Rapid Application
Development)
 Definition and features
 The IBM ARAD solution: IBM Rational Rapid
Developer
 A business application scenario

What is RAD?
 Is a software development process model that has
been developed to respond to the need to deliver
systems very fast
 Actually it allows usable systems to be built in as little as 3-6
months
 It has been developed in the early 1990s
 It takes inspiration from spiral model
 Its goals are: faster, better, cheaper

Problems addressed by RAD
 With conventional methods, there is a long delay
before the customer gets to see any results
 With conventional methods, there is nothing until
100% of the process is finished, then 100% of the
software is delivered
 With conventional methods, software development
can take so long that the customer’s business has
fundamentally changed by the time the system is
ready for use
 Satisfying the customer at the time of delivery

When use RAD?
Project scope: focused, where the business objectives are well
defined and narrow
Project data: already exist
Project decisions: can be made by a small number of people
who are available and co-located
Project team: very small (six people)
Project technical architecture: defined and clear and the key
technology components are well known
Project technical requirements: are reasonable and well
within the capability of the technology being used
Intensive involvement of the end user in the design of the
system (JAD, Joint Application Development)

Features of RAD
 Use of prototyping, which helps users visualize and
make adjustments to the system
 Use of a CASE repository to facilitate the re-use of
templates, components and systems
 Use of an integrated CASE toolset to generate bug-free
code from a fully validated design
 Development of a task structure that encourages
parallel project activities

RAD development cycle

RAD uses iterative prototyping
 JRP (Joint Requirement Planning) meeting: high-level
end-users and developers meet in a session to
generate a list of initial requirements
 Iteration
 Designers review the prototype
 Developers build/evolve the prototype based on current
requirements
 Customers try out the prototype and evolve their
requirements
 Focus Group Meeting (JAD): customers and developers
meet to review product together and refine requirements
 Requirements and change requests are “timeboxed”

Stages of RAD: Requirements
Planning
 takes one to four weeks to complete
 is defined during a JRP meeting
 consists of a review of the areas immediately
associated with the proposed system
 produces a broad definition of the system requirements in
terms of the functions the system will support
 deliverables from this stage include
 an outline system area model (entity and process model)
 a definition of the system’s scope
 a cost justification for the new system

Stages of RAD: User Design
 is defined during JAD meetings
 consists of a detailed analysis of the business
activities related to the proposed system to outline
the design
 The team defines entity types and creates action diagrams
defining the interactions between processes and data
 System procedures are designed and preliminary layouts of
screens are developed
 Prototypes of critical procedures are built
 A plan for implementing the system is prepared
 Together with the next stage, User Design consists of
a series of iterations

Stages of RAD: Construction
 Developers, working directly with users, finalize the
design, build and test the prototype
 The deliverables include documentation and
instructions necessary to operate the new application
and procedures needed to put the system into
operation
 Timebox and parallel development: involves
monitoring progresses to complete each task quickly
 The prototype is reviewed by users
 Requirements document can be modified, so another
iteration starts

Stages of RAD: Transition
 the period during which the newly developed system
gradually replaces existing systems
 User acceptance: end of iterations
 Developers train users to operate the new application
 objectives
 Install the system in production operation with minimal
disruption of normal business activity
 Maximize the effectiveness of the system in supporting the
intended business activities
 Identify potential future enhancements

RAD team
 should include both developers and users of the system and
each person can play several roles
User Coordinator: appointed by the Sponsor to oversee the project
from the user perspective
Requirements Planning Team: high-level users participating in
the requirements planning
User Design Team: participates in the design meetings
User Review Board: review the system after the construction and
decide if modifications are needed
Training Manager: responsible for training users to work with the
new system
Project Manager: oversees the development effort
Construction (SWAT) Team: two to six developers highly trained
to work together at high speed. SWAT stands for “Skilled Workers
with Advanced Tools”. This team builds the system and also
participate in the design meetings
Meeting Leader: organizes and conducts the meetings

RAD tools
 RAD depends entirely on automated tools
 CASE software provides planning, analysis and design
“workbenches” that are fully integrated so that one tool
directly employs the information from another
 repository stores the knowledge from the multiple tools in
an integrated manner
 code generator is fully integrated with the design toolset
and allows the developer to design, modify, generate code
and test as quickly as possible

RAD documentation
 Customers, developers and management must
accept informal deliverables
 Notes from user meetings rather than formal requirements
documents
 Notes from designers meetings rather than formal design
documents
 Principle: create the minimum documentation
necessary to facilitate future development and
maintenance

Problems of RAD
 criticized because it lacks a methodology and a
designed architecture
 flexibility of RAD systems decreases as applications
grow
 RAD tends to fail when
 Application must interoperate with existing programs
 Performance and reliability are critical
 The system cannot be modularized
 New technologies are used

Introduction to ARAD
 IBM acquired Rational Software
 Starting point: RUP (Rational Unified Process)
 It is a software development process model which includes a
lot of features of the spiral model (iteration, prototyping,
phased development)
 Each phase is supported by visual tools
 It establishes four phases of development, each consisting
of one ore more executable iterations

What is Architected RAD?
 an evolution of RAD which supports the creation of
enterprise applications and has a “formal”
process
 a version of the Rational Unified Process (RUP) that
has been optimized for RAD
 the team is made up of eleven people: a project
leader, one analyst, eight developers and one
technology architect
 is characterized by
 a unified process
 business modeling with UML
 rapid application development

Unified ARAD process
 One problem of RAD is that it lacks a “formal”
process
 Unified ARAD process unifies the team by providing
roadmaps for application development that include
defining flows, stakeholders and explaining how they
interrelate

Business modeling with UML
 RAD lacks a focus on the business processes that
drive software requirements
 ARAD focuses on business modeling
 analysts can use UML to analyze business requirements,
define business use cases, define the information model for
the application and the business processes and business
rules

The IBM ARAD solution:
IBM Rational Rapid Developer
 is the new Rational software solution for ARAD (2003)
 provides an integrated application development environment
and process that unifies team skills
 supports rapid application development, integration and architected
code construction
 helps team rapidly deliver n-tier business applications without
encountering the complexity of the underlying technology platforms
 enables late binding of construction patterns and deployment
platforms
 integrates with the IBM Rational lifecycle toolset
 covers the complete lifecycle, from requirements to deployment
 supports parallel development, version management and change
management

IBM Rational Rapid Developer
workflow
 Rational Rapid Developer follows a
model-driven approach to application
development
 Nine out of ten members of the
development team are focused on
business process
 Development team begins by capturing
requirements and assessing existing
assets (or requiring new ones) to
support the process

IBM Rational Rapid Developer
workflow (2)
 The next step focuses on
visual modeling the
application and designing
Web, wireless, XML,
messaging and Web
services transactions
 Rational Rapid Developer
provides essential UML
models

IBM Rational Rapid Developer
workflow (3)
 The application,
completely visually
modeled, resides in
the application
repository before it
is cast into a
chosen technology
platform

IBM Rational Rapid Developer
workflow (4)
 Now the technology expert
decides how the application
will be constructed and
deployed choosing the
platform and determining
patterns

IBM Rational Rapid Developer
workflow (5)
 Based on choices by the
team's technical expert,
Rational Rapid Developer
automatically constructs the
final application in a matter
of minutes, and even
automatically compiles, test
and deploys it
 Each stage can be iterated
 Users involvement

A business application
scenario
 Let’s use the ARAD process to design this marketplace
application

Business requirements with
UML
 Use cases that describe the Web, wireless and
integration functions of the application
 IBM Rational Rapid Developer provides a project
estimator that can estimate the work effort required to
develop the application, based on these use cases
 Model visually the application: use some of the UML
models such as UML Class Model

Business requirements with
UML (2)
 Import legacy database models: the database schema is
automatically converted into an XML file and imported into
Rational Rapid Developer as a class model
 Rational Rapid Developer can perform object-to-relational mapping
and create database schema for relational databases
 Define business rules using a Java business rule editor.
Rule examples are: inventory check, order pricing, customer
credit check
 Define business processes as state chart/activity diagrams
 They are purely analytical and do not lead to any direct code
construction

Develop user interfaces
rapidly
 Define site flow models for each actor of the
application: these models reflect the user interface
use cases
 Define the look and feel of the application with styles
and themes
 Design Web pages: it is visual and rapid and
facilitated by the Page Architect feature

Develop user interfaces
rapidly (2)
 Design page logic: it is written in Java using the
Logic Architect
 IBM Rational Rapid Developer provides nearly 100 code
templates, so developers need only fill in parameters to write
code
 IBM Rational Rapid Developer automatically
construct, compiles and deploys the application
 Internationalization of pages: a translation file is
created and imported

Rapid integration development
 Enterprise integration with XML
 Integration with Web Services: IBM Rational Rapid
Developer discovers the services published in a
public repository, than the developer clicks on a
service and a service call is inserted in the code like a
Java method call
 The developer specifies only the method call parameters
 IBM Rational Rapid Developer will automatically handle all
the mechanics of invoking the service, using SOAP request/
response mechanism

N-tier architected deployment
 The technology architect can deploy the same
application in varying environments.
 Chosen a particular environment, the architect select
appropriate technologies and fine tunes the construction
patterns
 The desired degree of performance, scalability and security
can be specified
 IBM Rational Rapid Developer creates an optimized
code for each deployment model
 IBM Rational Rapid Developer can now be used for
functional and performance testing
 Each stage can be iterated

Deployment models

Rational toolset
 In addition to IBM Rational Rapid Developer ($6,595)
 IBM Rational RequisitePro® ($2,034)
 IBM Rational XDE ($1,595)
 IBM Rational Rose
 IBM Rational ClearCase® ($65,950 for a 10-user
license)
 IBM Rational ClearQuest®
 IBM Rational TeamTest®

References
 RAD
 www.gantthead.com/process/processMain.cfm?ID=2-19516-2
 sysdev.ucdavis.edu/WEBADM/document/rad_toc.htm
 ARAD
 www.ibm.com
 www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/441.html#N10269