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.