Rad - Rapid Application Development

RAD (Rapid Application Development) refers to a development life-cycle designed to give much faster development and higher-quality results than those achieved with the traditional life-cycle

“Rapid Application Development is a software development process developed initially by James Martin in the 1980s. The methodology involves iterative development, and the construction of prototypes. Traditionally the rapid application development approach involves compromises in usability, features, and/or execution speed. It is described as a process through which the development cycle of an application is expedited. Rapid Application Development thus enables quality products to be developed faster, saving valuable resources”. (James Martin 1992)

I.COMPONENTS OF RAD

User involvement is key to success

Prototyping is conducted in sessions similar to Joint Application Design (JAD)

Prototyping screens become screens within the production system

CASE tools are used to design the prototypes

II.PROBLEMS ADDRESSED BY RAD

A.With conventional methods, there is a long delay before the

customer gets to see any results.

B.With conventional methods, development can take so long that the

customer's business has fundamentally changed by the time the

system is ready for use.

C.With conventional methods, there is nothing until 100% of the

process is finished, then 100% of the software is delivered.

III.EVALUATION OF RAD

A.ADVANTAGES Vs DISADVANTAGES

i.Since system are being developed quickly that could lead to lower overall system quality.

ii.Though it works well where speed of development is important, that can lead to possible violation of programming standards related to inconsistent naming conventions and inconsistent documentation.

iii.Users