Overview
We
will be discussing how RAD affects Prudential Real Estate and Relocation
Services. We will answer the following
questions. How Prudential uses RAD to
facilitate quick change? What is another
solution for Prudential to accomplish the same task? What is the definition of RAD? We will begin by providing a
background of the company’s services and culture.
Background
Real Estate and relocation
is only a small part of Prudential dominion.
Prudential offers insurance (Life and Auto), investing (Mutual Funds),
banking (Home Equity Loans), and financial planning (Retirement and
Education). Prudential prides itself on
its ability to react to change as swiftly as a dot-com, despite being part of a
giant corporate culture.
Prudential has been around
for over 125 years. They are very well
known from coast to coast. They can
best be described by their guiding principles described on their web page. I will attempt to summarize their guiding
principles. They are socially
responsible. This is demonstrated
through their volunteer programs.
Employees are encouraged to volunteer for their community. Prudential builds lasting
relationships. Their longevity proves
this. Finally, Prudential has built a
trust. A quote from their web site
explains why they have this trust. “The
strength of Prudential is built on a foundation of integrity and a commitment
to the highest ethical standards.” I
believe this because of personal experience.
I do not remember seeing any mischievous practices coming from
prudential.
Definition
Rapid
Application Development (RAD) is a methodology that compresses the analysis,
design, build, and test phases of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
into a series of short and focused development cycles. This methodology has numerous advantages
over the traditional waterfall development model. The most prominent advantage is allowing quick change and/or
implemintation. RAD projects typically
are staffed with small teams comprised of developers, end users, and IT
technicians. Small teams combined with
short development cycles optimize speed, unity, vision, and purpose. Effective informal communications and simple
project management are also advantages of using RAD.
Utilization of
RAD
Prudential
Real Estate and Relocation Services (PRERS) utilizes an Internet portal with
aggregated destination and relocation information. The system is called Relocation Center, and new versions are
released four times a year. In order for
the IT team at PRERS to release a new version of Relocation Center four times a
year, RAD lifecycle methodology must be used.
The traditional development cycle follows a strict sequence of steps
that must be formally signed off at the completion of each. A detailed requirement specification is done
that attempts to capture the system requirements. Users are forced to sign off on the specification before
development proceeds to the next step.
This is followed by a complete system design and development and
testing. There is no way the IT team
could successfully deliver a new system version four times a year by following
a strict sequence of steps such as these that are utilized in a more
traditional methodology. If the design
phase uncovers requirements that are technically unfeasible or are too
expensive to implement, this could delay a release by several months. By compressing the steps of the development
lifecycle the IT team is able to decrease defects significantly, make better
use of everyone’s development time, and meet a much more accelerated delivery
cycle. The IT team works closely with
other departments within PRERS during Joint Application Development (JAD)
sessions to define the features that need to be implemented. The team then designs and builds the new
release and allows for effectiveness and self correction. A stress test of the new system is then
performed.
Integrating
the software development process from requirements through development and
testing ensures higher quality applications and the ability to launch a new
release four times a year.