The term RAD refers to a software development methodology, namely rapid application development.This methodology is targeted towards faster development times in disregard to software planning.Basically, planning is minimized or even replaced by prototyping, which provides an early look on how the final application might be used.
Usually, software development includes many stages, like planning, implementation, testing, deployment maintenance. When it comes to rapid development, one might say it uses two key techniques : iterative development and software prototyping. Most of the times, if not always, iterative development goes hand in hand with incremental development, which implies developing the system in smaller pieces at a time
through repeated cycles. Prototyping refers to the process of building small programs which simulates some of the features of the final products and offer a view on product’s design. It is beneficial for both, developers and customers : the team of developers may gain relevant feedback from customers and the customer can use prototypes to point out some features which are ignored or not implemented the way they wanted.
One of the main goals of RAD is producing high quality software in a short time and with a low budget through iterative development, intensive prototyping and customer involvement. This objective is obtained through breaking the whole project in smaller pieces which are easier to handle and allow developers and customers to easily change some of the features if it’s necessary. In order to produce software in a short time some parts may be neglected. When it comes to RAD, technological and engineering part does not have the same importance as meeting the requirements asked by the customer.And there may be times, when some features are cut off instead of increasing the deadline, which I think is great from customer’s point of view, because he gets the software in the time frame he requested. Only that discarding likely useless features and keeping the most relevant is a difficult job and it takes years of experience to master it.
To sum up, RAD is the best way to build small to medium projects, because it’s faster, cheaper and more customer oriented, this is why I use RAD tools at work and for my college projects.
