Rapid Application Development (RAD) is an approach that focuses on developing rapid applications through frequent reiterations & continuous feedback. In the competitive software market, there is a growing demand for new applications & the IT industry is stressed out to convey the products faster & because of this RAD is the requirement.
RAD methodology was formed by tech-consultant and author James Martin in 1991. Rapid Application Development was a forerunner to swift project management, popularly growing with agile businesses seeking solutions to keep pace with increasing business & clients’ requirements. Emphasis on rapid prototyping, emancipating cycles, and iterations over excessive planning, quick user feedback, despite severe planning.
RAD is an application development model that existed when developers realized the traditional software development method, the waterfall model. This traditional model came with a major flaw in the testing phase of the program, where software didn’t allow to change the core functions and features. This wasn’t effective & flexible as per the requirement.
Rapid Application Development (RAD) was perceived in the 1980s. At the outset, Barry Boehm, James Martin, and others interested observed that the software was not restricted to traditional approaches of engineering. No fixed structure was required & was flexible according to the users’ needs. In the initial stages, Rapid Application Development was a spiral model over a period, it improved upon by retaining its core developmental parameters.
Phases in Rapid Application Development
- Define the User Requirements: At the very first stage, Rapid Application Development proves it to be different from other models of traditional software development. It tests for a broader range of requirements rather than to sit with end-users for detailed specifications in the model to be established. This nature of Rapid Application Development supports you to get the precise requirements at distinctive levels of the developmental cycle.
- Prototype: In this phase, the actual development begins & developers create prototypes based on different features & functions very quickly which is not followed with the set of requirements & then these prototypes are manifested to clients to decide for themselves what they require & whatnot. Frequently, these prototypes are rapidly created to work function just unfinished to show certain features. Though this is not the final stage, the final product is created & finished through the finalization stage in which clients and developers both reach a decision of the final product.
- Gain Feedback: In this phase, feedback on functionalities, visuals, interfaces, alterations, application coding, system testing, unit integration & many more aspects are taken into consideration. Software & applications are thoroughly tested to achieve the objectives & meet the expectations of the end-user client satisfaction. It is throughout this phase that developers gather feedback on suggestions, alterations, and new concepts to build in the model. With this, the developers move on to the next step.
- Finalize Product Application/Software: In this phase, developers are ready to deliver the outcome of the software to their clients. This includes all the features, functions, stability, maintainability, moving all the components of the application into a live production environment, execution of full-scale testing just to identify the bugs and snags in the product. Finally, post this process, the working team writes the thorough documentation & completes the procedure before handling the finished product to the client.
Advantages of RAD
- Flexible to the requirements from clients can be changed at any time.
- Reassures to work with customer feedback & priorities on implementation.
- Quick & rapid evaluations on execution.
- The development time frame is decreased.
- The time period is less between product prototypes & iterations.
- Unit integration is since project inception, so integration causes no difficulty.