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Software Development Process
This article is part of the Software Development Process series
Activities and Steps
Requirements | Architecture | Implementation | Testing | Deployment
Models
Agile | Cleanroom | Iterative | RAD | RUP | Spiral | Waterfall | XP
Supporting Disciplines
Configuration Management | Documentation | Project Management | User Experience Design

Rapid application development (RAD), is a software development process developed initially by James Martin in the 1980s. The methodology involves iterative development, the construction of prototypes, and the use of Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools. Traditionally the rapid application development approach involves compromises in usability, features, and/or execution speed.

Contents 1 History 2 Pros and Cons of RAD 3 References 4 See also 5 External links

Application development refers to the developing of programming applications and differs from programming itself in that it has a higher level of responsibility, including for requirement capturing and testing.^[1] Rapid Application Development was a response to non-agile processes developed in the 1970s, such as the Waterfall model. The problem with previous methodologies was that applications took so long to build that requirements had changed before the system was complete, often resulting in unusable systems. Starting with the ideas of Brian Gallagher, Barry Boehm and Scott Shultz, James Martin developed the Rapid Application Development approach during the 1980s at IBM and finally formalised it by publishing a book in 1991.

One such company which concentrated on the development of RAD programming, Magic Software, developed a unique paradigm which enabled both programmers and non-progammers to quickly write sophisticated programs by defining business rules in tables rather than reusing or developing new code. In the mid 90's a programming event was established, the Droege[1] Competition, in which programmers from all over the world raced to complete an application using the language and platform of their choice. Magic Software's paradigm not only won the competition each of the five years the event was held, but dominated all the top positions by an overwhelming margin. Magic Software's paradigm went on to become an established IDE with the ability not only to siginificantly cut programming time, but additionally cut maintenance time on enterprise level projects.

Pros

1. Increased speed of development through methods including rapid prototyping, virtualization of system related routines, the use of CASE tools, and other techniques.
2. Decreased end-user utility
3. Larger emphasis on simplicity and usability of GUI design

Cons

1. Reduced Scalability, and reduced features when a RAD developed application starts as a prototype and evolves into a finished application
2. Reduced features occur due to time boxing when features are pushed to later versions in order to finish a release in a short amount of time^{[citation needed]}

• James Martin: Rapid Application Development, Macmillan Coll Div, ISBN 0-02-376775-8

• Agile software development
• Collaborative development environment (CDE)
• List of Rapid Application Development tools

• blueink.biz - Rapid Application Development - More details on RAD including the process and lifecycle stages, and Rapid Application Development tools
• More details on RAD