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Rapid Application Development (RAD)

Rapid Application Development (RAD) rapidly develops software via the use of prototypes, “dummy” GUIs, back-end databases, and more. The goal of RAD is quickly meeting the business need of the system; technical concerns are secondary. The customer is heavily involved in the process.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (see http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/CMS-Information-Technology/XLC/Downloads/SelectingDevelopmentApproach.pdf), RAD “Aims to produce high quality systems quickly, primarily through the use of iterative prototyping (at any stage of development), active user involvement, and computerized development tools. These tools may include Graphical User Interface (GUI) builders, Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools, Database Management Systems (DBMS), fourth-generation programming languages, code generators, and object-oriented techniques” [14].

Prototyping

Prototyping is an iterative approach that breaks projects into smaller tasks, creating multiple mockups (prototypes) of system design features. This lowers risk by allowing the customer to see realistic-looking results long before the final product is completed. As with other modern development methods, there is a high level of customer involvement: the customer inspects the prototypes to ensure that the project is on track and meeting its objective.

The term “prototype” may be a bit misleading: later stage prototypes may be used as the actual final product. Prototypes can be thought of as “working models.” Prototyping is not a full-fledged software development methodology: it is used by other iterative methods such as Spiral or RAD.