General Project Management vs. Rapid Application Development

Scenario:

Your organization has just completed the Initiation Process for implementing an Email System Upgrade. It was identified in a recent meeting with management leaders from the Sales, Consulting and IT departments, that the current email system is causing significant business interruptions and must be updated. You have been assigned the role of project manager to develop the project schedule and costs. As project manager, you will be called upon to defend the schedule and its estimates, expected costs, and the techniques and methods you have chosen to execute and control the project. The project is being initiated with the following initial project scope in mind:

- There are five email systems currently being used across twelve departments and offices. These will be replaced and consolidated into one email system;
- New Email Standards and Protocols will be established and training provided to all departments;
- All 2000 current email users will be converted to the new system, and 500 new users that did not have email before will be added;
- Users will have both LAN and remote access to email;
- Help desk and support infrastructure will be set-up to accommodate the new system;
- Equipment salvaged;
- Users PCs upgraded to accommodate new email system.

Details: You check into your e-group today and see that conversation has begun about the differences between general project management and application development or rapid application development (RAD) models. Post your own thoughts and learning about these differences. Discuss if these different models can be used simultaneously or if it is best if they are used on their own.