Virtually every company, brand and website has its own mobile or web application.
Those applications are typically accessible to the public and ideally lightweight. To stay competitive companies must constantly update and progress their product.
Rapid application development is a relatively general term used to describe non-waterfall approaches to application development. Experts generally categorize the process into four steps.
1. Outlining Requirements
Here, teams or users must address their goals while outlining the tools necessary to achieve them. Teams should discuss the scope of their projects and the means to complete them. Some apps may require hosting services to house data, others may require continuous integration for consistent iterations.
2. Design
During the design step, teams and users discuss the look and feel of their applications. Wire-framing and prototyping tools may be necessary to build low-fidelity mock-ups or hi-fidelity prototypes. Here, the navigation and appearance of an application becomes tangible.
3. Construction
Application development, coding and programming are the main components of the construction phase. Developers communicate with each other to assign tasks plan phases of development. After creating an infrastructure, committing code and completing the required tasks, an app is ready to deploy.
4. Testing
Now that code has been deployed and the app has been launched, it is time for user training and testing. After feedback is received Adjustments are made accordingly in preparation for a formal release.
Free RAD products that can help you make your first app:
Django
Django is a relatively advanced application server that offers tools to complete rapid development needs. In addition to functioning as an application server, Python supports multiple application frameworks to expedite the development process.
Spring Boot
Spring Boot is an open-source cloud platform used to develop Spring-based web apps. The product aims to minimize configuration to quickly develop product-ready apps.
Pivotal.io
Pivotal.io is similar to Spring Boot in that it is open source, cloud-based and aimed to develop applications quickly. It also provides continuous delivery tools and management tools for DevOps teams.
Apache ISIS
Apache ISIS is an open-source framework for developing domain-driven apps in Java. It provides tools to build and design user interfaces, object-based development and the ability to integrate add-ons for additional functionality.
ActiveTcl
ActiveTcl is a proprietary rapid application development tool that has a free community version. It provides tools to manage development cycles, find community support and build applications.
While the range and overall effectiveness of any rapid application development tool varies from product to product, data from verified users can help potential buyers make better-informed decisions when they look for their next rapid application development tool.
