I’m completely lost on this sudden move to RAD development methodologies. Originally I had hoped that it was just a fad but instead this seems to be a growing trend. In concept it’s a great idea, being able to quickly release new enhancements to projects sounds cool. But it seems crazy to me to put a one size fits all mentality on everything. You just can’t say your Agile and be agile.

There are two things that you need to be RAD. You need skills and you need reusable process. The problem is that more and more companies are adopting these methodologies and at the same time investing in new technologies or development teams. This is especially visible in content management projects where deployments are more of an art than a science and there are very few masters out there.

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EMC announced the acquisition of the NJ based BusinessEdge, calling it a New Information Management Consulting Practice. What I would like to know is, was there something wrong with their old one? Apparently so. Since the acquisition of Documentum, EMC has continued to shuffle the structure of it’s various consulting offerings and those of us in partner community have experienced both good and ill effects of the turmoil. Is this just another case of EMC competing with itself or is this an admission that running this kind of business is not their strong suit and this acquisition is their attempt to fix the problem.

Potential implications for the partner community could be dramatic. EMC has always favored their own consulting but willingly extended it through parter relationships. Will they now take an exclusive approach similar to OpenText? Given the track record, it will be months if not years before any real change is executed but if your a Documentum only partner, you might consider buying a SharePoint book and put your house on the market.