Editing Rapid application development (section)

== Advantages ==
In modern Information Technology environments, many systems are now built using some degree of Rapid Application Development<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gartner.com.br/tecnologias_empresariais/pdfs/brl37l_a3.pdf|title= The Disintegration of AD: Putting it Back Together Again|publisher=gartner.com.br|access-date=2010-04-13}}</ref> (not necessarily the James Martin approach). In addition to Martin's method, [[agile methods]] and the [[Rational Unified Process]] are often used for RAD development.

The purported advantages of RAD include:
* Better quality. By having users interact with evolving prototypes the business functionality from a RAD project can often be much higher than that achieved via a waterfall model. The software can be more [[Usability|usable]] and has a better chance to focus on business problems that are critical to end users rather than technical problems of interest to developers.  However, this excludes other categories of what are usually known as [[Non-functional requirement]]s (AKA constraints or quality attributes) including [[Computer security|security]] and [[Porting|portability]].
* Risk control. Although much of the literature on RAD focuses on speed and user involvement a critical feature of RAD done correctly is risk mitigation. It's worth remembering that Boehm initially characterized the spiral model as a risk based approach. A RAD approach can focus in early on the key risk factors and adjust to them based on empirical evidence collected in the early part of the process. E.g., the complexity of prototyping some of the most complex parts of the system. 
* More projects completed on time and within budget. By focusing on the development of incremental units the chances for catastrophic failures that have dogged large waterfall projects is reduced. In the Waterfall model it was common to come to a realization after six months or more of analysis and development that required a radical rethinking of the entire system. With RAD this kind of information can be discovered and acted upon earlier in the process.<ref name="dimap.ufrn.br"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Beck|first1=Kent|title=Extreme Programming Explained|date=2000|publisher=Addison Wesley|isbn=0201616416|pages=[https://archive.org/details/extremeprogrammi00beck/page/3 3–7]|url=https://archive.org/details/extremeprogrammi00beck/page/3}}</ref>