Rapid Application Development
Rapid application development. Are you interested in understanding how rapid application development might help you in your company? Are you looking for a way to get a software project going and completed quickly but without compromising quality and scope and still maintaining a tight budget? We can help you.
What is Rapid Application Development?
Rapid application development ("RAD") refers to a method of developing software that moves very quickly from planning to development to implementation and does not start with a detailed specifications document as the first step. RAD does not require extensive pre-planning. Instead, the project team works first on setting out an overview of objectives (business needs, scope, budget, high level required features) but then focuses on moving directly to software development using a flexible development process to build the required software.
This means your software project can get going quickly without taking months to create a detailed specification document first. In many cases it is impossible to create a complete specification document beforehand because it is simply impossible to think of every aspect of software design in advance.
Key Success Factors
The key to making rapid application development work is to have structure in the development process and to have a team and technology that are geared towards flexible software design and implementation.
Smartlaunch is a rapid application development specialist. We use the most popular RAD methodology - Agile (specifically SCRUM) to achieve your organization's goals. The key to Agile is that the project is broken into 1 or 2 week blocks and then at the end of each block, the customer is given working software to demo and critique. We encourage change. We have more here on Agile Software Development.
State-of-the-art Development Platform. The goal to have flexibility in the software development process and easy change management can only be achieved with a development platform that makes it possible . At Smartlaunch we use a state-of-the-art platform (Outsystems) which enables flexibility and includes one-click publishing so that your software can be used and reviewed at a moment's notice.
We are Fast. Most importantly, we can develop software at twice the speed as those using Microsoft tools and up to 5 times faster than some other platforms (Java for example). And we create standard .NET code. This makes us flexible AND fast. Contact us and we can show you a demo of what we can do in two weeks.
Team of Application Developers. We have a large permanent team of software developers working on our projects. Once a team is assigned to your project they will work on your project until it is finished.
The Benefits of Rapid Application Development
There are many reasons for an organization to embrace rapid application development:
- You get results faster. Not only does rapid application development result in software that is completed more quickly and more in line with a customer's real scope, but Smartlaunch is able to develop software twice as quickly as those using (for example) Microsoft tools because of the platform we use to develop. We can complete many projects in a matter of weeks (not months), and most changes can be made within a few hours.
- Useful when the project is hard to define completely ahead of time. There are many projects where specifying an exact, final product cannot be done in advance, or it is simply too time consuming. Rapid application development is especially good for projects that are not "stable", ie where flexibility to change is needed as the discovery process continues.
- Keeps you competitive. The rapid application development process does not have to stop after the first iteration is completed. You can make fast changes at any time to keep ahead of your competitors and/or keep the application up to date and relevant.
Please read more about how Smartlaunch handles software projects in our description of the agile software development process.
We can provide you with Rapid Quotations too!
Smartlaunch can give you a firm quotation with timelines and fixed budget without a full specification document. What we need is an understanding of the goals of the project, the number of users, and a bullet-point list of overview required features. Most of this can be achieved with a phone call.
Get a Ballpark Quotation in 8 minutes!
If you want to know roughly what your project might cost, we can give you a ballpark in a matter of minutes... call us or fill in the form on the left hand side of the page.
How can we give you a quotation so easily?
Smartlaunch has an extensive database of completed projects with project features broken into segments. Each segment has data on how much programming time that segment took. When we look at a new project, we break it down into segments and use our database to estimate what each segment will take. For example we do not need to know the details of the login procedure from you - we have done hundreds! We just need to know: "Login required - same as windows login". From this we know that the users will login automatically to the new application using their existing windows login, that authentication will be done through Active Directory, that there will be a need for password retrieval, etc.
The result? You do not need a full specification document to get a firm quotation and the whole process is very quick.