Topic: RAD Model

Introduction

 

RAD is a linear sequential software development process model that emphasis an extremely short development cycle using a component based construction approach. If the requirements are well understood and defines, and the project scope is constraint, the RAD process enables a development team to create a fully functional system with in very short time period.

 Contents:
 

• What is RAD?
   
• Development Methodology
   
• RAD Model Phases
   
• Advantages and Disadvantages of RAD?

 

What is RAD?

 

RAD (rapid application development) is a concept that products can be developed faster and of higher quality through:

• Gathering requirements using workshops or focus groups
• Prototyping and early, reiterative user testing of designs
• The re-use of software components
• A rigidly paced schedule that defers design improvements to the next product version
• Less formality in reviews and other team communication

 

Some companies offer products that provide some or all of the tools for RAD software development. (The concept can be applied to hardware development as well.) These products include requirements gathering tools, prototyping tools, computer-aided software engineering tools, language development environments such as those for the Java platform, groupware for communication among development members, and testing tools. RAD usually embraces object-oriented programming methodology, which inherently fosters software re-use. The most popular object-oriented programming languages, C++ and Java, are offered in visual programming packages often described as providing rapid application development.
 

Development Methodology

 

The traditional software development

cycle follows a rigid sequence of steps with a formal sign-off at the completion of each.  A complete, detailed requirements analysis is done that attempts to capture the system requirements in a Requirements Specification. Users are forced to "sign-off" on the specification before development proceeds to the next step. This is followed by a complete system design and then development and testing. 

 

But, what if the design phase uncovers requirements that are technically unfeasible, or extremely expensive to implement? What if errors in the design are encountered during the build phase? The elapsed time between the initial analysis and testing is usually a period of several months. What if business requirements or priorities change or the users realize they overlooked critical needs during the analysis phase? These are many of the reasons why software development projects either fail or don’t meet the user’s expectations when delivered.

RAD is a methodology for compressing the analysis, design, build, and test phases into a series of short, iterative development cycles. This has a number of distinct advantages over the traditional sequential development model.

RAD Model Phases

 

RAD model has the following phases:

1. Business Modeling:

   The information flow among business functions is defined by answering questions like what information drives the business process, what information is generated, who generates it, where does the information go, who process it and so on.

 

2. Data Modeling:

   The information collected from business modeling is refined into a set of data objects (entities) that are needed to support the business. The attributes (character of each entity) are identified and the relation between these data objects (entities) is defined.

3. Process Modeling:

   The data object defined in the data modeling phase are transformed to achieve the information flow necessary to implement a business function. Processing descriptions are created for adding, modifying, deleting or retrieving a data object.

4. Application Generation:

   Automated tools are used to facilitate construction of the software; even they use the 4th GL techniques.

5. Testing and Turn over:

   Many of the programming components have already been tested since RAD emphasis reuse. This reduces overall testing time. But new components must be tested and all interfaces must be fully exercised.

 

Advantages and Disadvantages

RAD reduces the development time and reusability of components help to speed up development. All functions are modularized so it is easy to work with.

For large projects RAD require highly skilled engineers in the team. Both end customer and developer should be committed to complete the system in a much abbreviated time frame. If commitment is lacking RAD will fail. RAD is based on Object Oriented approach and if it is difficult to modularize the project the RAD may not work well.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Mithi25 - 05Aug2009 at 11:33pm