Rapid

Application
Development

Damian
Damian Gordon
Gordon
 Contents
1. Overview
2. Details
3. Advantages
4. Disadvantages
5. Interesting
6. Reflection
7. Review
8. Summary
1. Overview
 Overview
• “Rapid Application Development” is a model
that represents one method as to how
software can be developed.
 Timeline of Methodologies

1950s Code & Fix

1960s Design-Code-Test-Maintain
1970s Waterfall Model
1980s Spiral Model
1990s Rapid Application Development, V Model
2000s Agile Methods

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 Timeline of Methodologies

1950s Code & Fix

1960s Design-Code-Test-Maintain
1970s Waterfall Model
1980s Spiral Model
1990s Rapid Application Development, V Model
2000s Agile Methods

7
 Reference
• Martin, J., RAD: Rapid Application
Development, 1991, MacMillan Publishing Co.,
New York.
 Reference
• Martin, J., RAD: Rapid Application
Development, 1991, MacMillan Publishing Co.,
New York.
 James Martin
• Born in 1933.
• Died 24 June 2013
• Born in Ashby,
Leicestershire
• a British Information
Technology consultant
and author, who was
nominated for a Pulitzer
prize for his book, The
Wired Society: A
Challenge for Tomorrow
(1977).
2. Details
RAD

13
 RAD
• Rapid Application Development is a lightweight
approach to development. It is divided into four
phases:

– 1. Requirements Planning Phase

– 2. User Design Phase
– 3. Construction Phase
– 4. Cutover Phase

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 RAD
• 1. Requirements Planning Phase

– Also called “Joint Requirements Planning (JRP) Phase”

– Combines the Planning and Analysis phases from the
Waterfall Model
– End-users and IT staff agree on business needs, project
scope, constraints, and system requirements
– This phase ends when the team agree on the key issues
and obtain management authorization to continue

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 RAD
• 2. User Design Phase

– End-users and IT staff jointly develop the system

processes, inputs, and outputs.
– They use a combination of Joint Application Design (JAD)
and CASE tools.
– This needs to be a continuous interactive process that
allows End-users to understand, modify, and eventually
approve a working model of the system that meets their
needs.

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 RAD
• 3. Construction Phase

– Similar to the Development phase in the Waterfall model,

but End-users continue to participate and can still suggest
changes or improvements as actual screens or reports are
developed.
– The key tasks in this phase are programming and
application development, coding, unit-integration and
system testing.

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 RAD
• 4. Cutover Phase

– Similar to the Installation, Testing and Maintenance phases

of the Waterfall model, including data conversion, testing,
changeover to the new system, and user training.
– Compared with traditional methods, the entire process is
compressed, and as a result, the new system is built,
delivered, and placed in operation much sooner

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RAD

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 RAD
• Tools
– Using CASE tools provides automation support for systems
development through features such as code generation
and automatic consistency checking.
– CASE tools that generate prototypes can be used to
support the iterative development approach, allowing end
users to see the application evolve as it is being built.

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 RAD
• Methodology
– The most effective family of techniques must be
formalised and used to deliver the system.
– A complete list of tasks is provided to ensure that no
essential activity is overlooked, while techniques are fully
documented to ensure that a task is performed in the
proper way.

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 RAD
• People
– The best people must be well-trained in both the
methodology and the tools.
– Small teams that work consistently well together should be
grouped together on assignments.

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 RAD
• Management
– The project must be managed for speed through the use of
techniques such as facilitated Joint Requirements Planning
(JRP) and Joint Application Design (JAD) workshops to
extract users' requirements quickly.
– Timebox Management is used in Rapid Construction to
iteratively deliver the system to the users.

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3. Advantages
 Advantages
• Significantly reduced development time
compared to other models.
 Advantages
• The approach increases reusability of
components
 Advantages
• Quick initial reviews occur
 Advantages
• It encourages customer feedback
 Advantages
• Integration from very beginning solves a lot of
integration issues.
4. Disadvantages
 Disadvantages
• Depends on strong team and individual
performances for identifying business
requirements.
 Disadvantages
• Only system that can be easily modularized
can be built using RAD.
 Disadvantages
• Requires highly skilled developers/designers.
 Disadvantages
• High dependency on modelling skills.
 Disadvantages
• Inapplicable to cheaper projects as cost of
modelling and automated code generation is
very high.
5. Interesting
 Interesting
• RAD is a way to deliver systems very fast, but it
should be noted that the longer a project, the
greater its likelihood of failure.
 Interesting
• RAD uses proven technologies and methodologies
effectively.

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 Interesting
• RAD should be used when there is a need to create a
system that can be modularized in 2-3 months of
time.

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 Interesting
• RAD should only be used be used:
– if there’s high availability of designers for
modelling
– if the budget is high enough to afford their cost
along with the cost of automated code generating
tools.
– if resources with high business knowledge are
available and there is a need to produce the
system in a short span of time (2-3 months).

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 Interesting
There are other versions of the Model:
6. Reflections
 RAD
• There may be a tendency to make the solution fit
within the capabilities of the tools provided by RAD.

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 RAD
• RAD can’t be used in all situations, and required
highly motived and skills IT staff and End-users.

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 RAD
• Modelling might include:
– Data Flow Diagram
– UML Activity Models
– Use Case Diagrams
– Interaction Sequence Diagrams

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 RAD
• Software Tools might include:
– MicroSoft Visio (drawing tool)
– FileMaker (wed publishing)
– MicroSoft Access (front-end & back-end prototypes)
– Visual Basic (GUIs)
– Oracle Enterprise Development Suite
– Microsoft Visual Studio (front-end & back-end prototypes)
– Rational Rose XDE (drawing tool)

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Reflections
7. Review
 Review
• What did we learn?
8. Summary
Summary