Rapid Application Development?

Question

I'm studying for an exam on Thursday, and in the notes there is a differentiation between incremental development and prototyping. RAD in the notes is said to be an incremental methodology, but anytime I've studied it previously I've referred to it as more of a prototyping method for development.

I'm just wondering whether other people see it as a prototyping methodology?

Answer 1

It should be possible to use an incremental method even for prototyping. Rapid application development is highly suitable for prototyping. The idea is the a.s.a.p. create something "working" on the screen with less of documentation than other development practices.

There is a wikipedia page about this R.A.D. which states the definition and use.

I found rapid application development suitable for developing smaller projects when you are undecided about several factors, for instance language choice, and the programming language of the final product might be another one than what the prototype used.

BTW, the RAD tag you're posting with here stands for IBM Rational Application Developer which is an integrated development environment whose abbreviation also is RAD.