6 Key Points to Choose the Right RAD Platform

Gartner predicts that, by 2023, market demand for app development will grow at least five times faster than IT can deliver. As the demand continues to soar, it is clear that traditional development methods can’t keep up with it.

As a result, many organizations are adopting rapid application development (RAD) methods and utilizing RAD tools. These can rapidly build and deploy customized applications, without the need for any time-consuming coding.

Rapid application development (RAD) is a type of agile development methodology. While waterfall development methods focus on requirement assessment and strict planning, RAD is more about incorporating user feedback into every step of the development process.

With a waterfall model, it becomes extremely difficult to modify any core features of the software once it is in the testing phase.

RAD helps solve that very problem by offering more flexibility. It prioritizes rapid prototyping and feedback during the development and testing phases. It is also much easier to make multiple revisions to the applications without the need to redo everything and start from scratch.

Some of the many benefits of a RAD platform include:

• Quick iterations lead to faster delivery
• Swift changes and modifications during the development
• Lower development and maintenance costs, as compared to traditional development methods
• Easier integrations with other software

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How to Choose The Right RAD Platform for Your Organization

While picking RAD over other methodologies is an obvious choice, picking the right RAD platform can be a rather overwhelming task. A good way to start is by identifying all the key requirements that an ideal RAD platform should offer. Here are six that you can’t afford to ignore.

1. Visual development support

The RAD platform you choose should have an accessible UI that allows you to develop applications with little to no coding. In fact, it’s best to pick a RAD tool that has visual drag-and-drop features along with UI integration.

At the same time, the tool shouldn’t completely exclude frontend developers, and allow them to make changes wherever required.

2. Quick deployment, modification, and prototyping

The RAD tool should be able to automatically deploy applications from the development environment to production, saving your team a lot of time. It should also be able to support different staged activities for testing purposes.

The tool should make it easy for you to check all the revisions made by the different team members, and rollback any changes with a simple click of a button.

At the same time, there should be a built-in provision for automated prototyping and wireframing so that you can have a clear idea about how the design will look before finalizing anything.

3. Easy reusability

In order to decrease the development time and deploy applications quickly, the RAD tool you choose should have the option to reuse previously built applications or its parts including workflows, forms, components, services, and templates.

4. Support for mobile apps

While the exact type of mobile support offered will differ from one RAD tool to another, it should at least be able to provide at least minimal support for mobile web apps. However, it may be best to pick RAD platforms that provide support for JavaScript and HTML5 in order to ensure your mobile hybrid applications run smoothly.

5. Seamless team collaboration

Choose a RAD platform that focuses on agile teams to make it easier for your IT and business teams to collaborate while developing applications. From managing tasks to reviewing code, messaging, and reporting, there are a lot of collaboration features offered by RAD platforms and the right one will depend on your exact requirements.

6. Real-time analytics

User feedback is an essential part of rapid application development and that is why it’s important to choose a RAD platform that offers features like built-in analytics, reporting, traceability, and app management which would, in turn, help you improve adoption and usability.

Next Step: Find Your Perfect RAD Platform

The next step is to evaluate RAD platforms carefully and choose the one that meets your organization’s current and future needs best.

Kissflow's Rapid Application Platform allows you to automate business processes. It offers all the necessary features you will require to develop and deploy applications at a fast pace.