Integrating rapid application development and participatory design

Rapid application development (RAD) is a contingent information systems development method that has arisen in response to business and development uncertainty in the commercial information systems engineering domain. Participatory design (PD) is a style of software development that has achieved some significance within a number of academic research areas and can be seen as a response to dissatisfaction with the underlying philosophy of dominant software development approaches. At the macro level, the two development styles appear divergent. However, at the micro level, there are many potential points of synergy. In the paper, both the RAD and PD traditions are reviewed and areas of possible cross-fertilisation are indicated. The efficacy of some of these points of synergy are illustrated in relation to aspects of empirical research on RAD approaches, particularly in relation to the utility of the concepts of scenarios and design breakdowns to RAD work