What's more, experts say the demand for high tech professionals with expertise in the RAD tools will likely increase in response to the productivity gains the tools are bringing to the market. RAD tools help software developers create applications by allowing them to work in visual environments where they can drag and drop objects, assemble pre-built components, and link dialog boxes without having to create new code for every program function. John Zubeck, an independent consultant working on his Ph.D. in RAD software at George Mason University, adds that the notion of rapid software development holds great appeal for developers and customers alike. Customers want to get their new systems up and running as quickly as possible, and developers want to increase their productivity.
People love it.
The term RAD has been affixed to many products for marketing purposes, which has created some confusion in the marketplace over how to define RAD tools. Developers know that the RAD portion of their project is over when they have to drop down to a 3GL or proprietary scripting language to accomplish a task, Starr said. The key to RAD is not having to develop code from scratch, he said. RAD Rebirth RAD has been around since the early 1990s, but initially RAD tools couldn't deliver the functionality developers needed for multi-platform, enterprise environments. Jeffcock notes that while CASE tools can be very effective, they come with a steep learning curve.