Rapid application development (RAD) is an approach to information systems (IS) development which is much discussed in the practitioner literature. However, there is comparatively little research data on this topic. This paper forms a report of the results of a multi-disciplinary research project which has been studying this development approach for the last three years. The paper discusses seven case studies of RAD projects and compares each to issues relating to a number of RAD principles as represented in methodologies such as the recent open standard known as dynamic systems development method. We conclude with a discussion of a number of important questions relating to further research on RAD.

Users or consumers have become increasingly prominent in sociological work on technology - as in the social sciences generally. This paper takes up and extends arguments developed by Steve Woolgar about how producers of technology `configure the user'. Rapid Application Development (RAD) is a recent technology (or methodology) for computer system development which emphasizes extensive user involvement throughout the development process. Drawing on ethnographic research of RAD, the paper develops four arguments. First, that decoding (by users) as well as encoding (by producers) is important for understanding technology production. Second, that designers configure users but they, in turn, are configured - both from within their own organizations, and by users. Third, that the boundary between user and designer is fluid and, indeed, configured. Finally, it develops the case for an extended actor-network approach which encompasses users or consumption.

This article explores the consequences of the uncertainty introduced into the system-development life cycle by a prototyping approach and the practical strategies employed by developers in prototyping projects. Drawing on various strands of the sociology of technology, the article discusses findings from a multidisciplinary research project, which investigated the use of prototyping in commercial information systems development in the United Kingdom during the period 1995 to 1998. Qualitative semistructured interviews with commercial practitioners were followed by a series of mini case studies. We draw on inDouglas Tudhope is a computer scientist with interests in hypermedia, information science, and the application of interactionist social science to Participatory Design; he is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Computing, University of Glamorgan. Paul Beynon-Davies is a computer scientist with an interest in information systems development and information systems management; he is Reader in Information Systems at the School of Computing, University of Glamorgan. Hugh Mackay is a sociologist with an interest in technology and culture and is researching computer system design and new media technologies; he is Staff Tutor and Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the Open University. Human-Computer Interaction 2000.15:353-383.terview and participant observation material and the practitioner literature on Rapid Application Development. In the course of the project, we encountered a variety of practical strategies that attempted to extend the sphere of developers' influence beyond the technical realm to affect (but not determine) how the user and customer participate in the development process. Various techniques attempt to create a climate of joint ownership and shared approaches to change management. For example, the role of an ambassador user encompasses shaping the environment in which the system will operate via information, training, and advocacy. Rather than a cause-and-effect model from user requirements to specification to implementation, developer strategies usefully can be considered in terms of sociological work on reflexive elaboration of networks. From this perspective, prototyping is more akin to trying to stabilize a network of evolving prototypes, user expectations, requirements, and working practices than meeting a fixed specification.

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