Today's businesses need to be able to meet customer expectations quickly if they want to continue to thrive. Whether it's launching a new app from a key market player with a decade of history, or shifting from offline to online e-commerce marketing during the pandemic, businesses need to proactively adapt to the market. As customers are offered new ways of serving, employees need to work in new ways, especially when it comes to business application development.
The three most common barriers to app development are: time, cost, and technical skills gaps. One of the ways to solve this problem is through rapid application development (RAD). This approach focuses on rapid prototyping and iterative delivery. In other words, it prioritizes speed and agility over weeks of deliberation.
Why was rapid application development born
The traditional software development life cycle model has been popular for a long time. However, this may not be the case in the future.
The waterfall model was popular in the 80s and 90s and is the traditional way of developing software. It has sequentially structured phases – requirements analysis, design, implementation, and coding, and finally testing. You can only move forward in a linear fashion. To proceed to the next stage, the previous stage must be completed. What's more, at the beginning of the project, all requirements need to be clearly articulated beforehand, and there is little room to incorporate customer feedback. So, if at a later point in time, the business wants to introduce a new feature or propose a new set of requirements, you can't iterate if that phase is already complete. Even if you don't feel like you need to add anything new at a later stage, the process itself means that software development takes a long time – often months, sometimes even years, by which point the entire project concept may have become redundant. As a result, the entire project could be canceled.
All of this translates into a lot of wasted costs and labor.
From the struggle of these program developments arose the need for Agile. Agile software development is premised on iterative development. This means that the interaction and collaboration between different people on the technical and business teams is no longer a focus on the process, but a focus. Rather than following an established plan for building software, responding to change becomes the central idea.
In other words, Agile brings the kind of flexibility that the waterfall model lacks. That's how it's the primary method for building applications, especially for dynamic environments.
Rapid application development is the enabler of this agile approach. It shifts the focus from the final product to the prototype. This means that teams can build multiple prototypes at once, test them with end users, validate the efficacy of each prototype, incorporate feedback, develop new iterations, and finally deploy the best-fit prototype into the final full-fledged application.
Now that we know where rapid application development comes from, let's talk about the four main reasons why businesses choose this agile approach.
Why Rapid Application Development
Deliver new applications faster:
Rapid application development is all about enabling teams to build prototypes on the fly. The journey from an idea to an application takes place in a fraction of the time it would have taken in the past using traditional software development models. Because you can see what the final output looks like as you build the application, the business case can be validated faster, and business leaders can be convinced of the value of the application in a matter of days. It's also easy to update an app in response to market changes, as rapid app development is best suited to provide innovative systems that require deep business engagement to keep pace with the market.
Reduce the risk of failure and give users what they want:
Because working prototypes can be created quickly, businesses can review features early in the application lifecycle. The knowledge and discoveries gained during the development process themselves can be easily redirected when needed, minimizing rework that could derail the entire project. In addition, rapid application development involves active collaboration with the end user from start to finish, ensuring that the final product is of higher quality and helping to deliver exactly what the end user needs.
Effective collaboration between IT and business users:
Unlike traditional app development models, the learning curve for rapid app development isn't that steep. Developers of all skill levels, whether citizen or professional, can start building applications with minimal effort. Think of it like building software out of Lego bricks – it's that simple! The only thing you need to start building is understanding the business logic. Apps are created using easy-to-build tools, such as drag-and-drop interfaces and widgets.
The possibilities are endless with a rapid application development platform:
Rapid application development platforms allow enterprises to build a large number of use cases, from front-end applications to support back-end modernization efforts. In other words, it has the ability to deliver innovation both internally and externally, such as:
Build omnichannel apps for amazing customer experiences:
The biggest advantage of using a rapid application development platform is that you can quickly build and deploy custom applications based on customer behavior and journeys. You can create new digital experiences in a matter of days to run on any channel, whether mobile or web, using the same platform. What's more, rapid application development shifts the focus from "my product" to "solving the customer's problem." It is most useful for building customer self-service portals, sales and marketing applications, and customer service applications.
Modernize legacy systems:
One of the threats to long-term businesses is reliance on legacy systems. Rapid application development allows you to rebuild large, complex systems in a matter of weeks. You can scale risk-free, quickly replace legacy applications, and ensure business continuity with minimal downtime. It is most useful in industries such as banking and financial services, logistics, and retail.
Automate business operations:
When you provide your employees with the right apps, they perform better, simply because they don't have to remember everything or rely on pen and paper to do it. With a rapid app development platform, you can build apps for your employees, whether they're working in the field or in the background, with dashboards, reports, and analytics included for effective monitoring. The direct benefits of doing so can be observed in terms of increased employee or partner engagement and productivity, as well as extended control over managers. It is most commonly used to deploy business automation applications, field operations applications, and workflow applications.
A rapid approach to application development helps businesses weather turbulence and maintain a competitive edge
The way rapid application development platforms work is that they replace individual lines of code with design elements. This makes it easy for anyone who understands business logic to build applications intuitively. Even at an advanced stage of development, change requirements are welcome. Since user feedback is a critical part of the process, the risk of failure is minimized. The final delivered product not only provides value but is actively used by the end user.
Rapid application development platforms can also provide a unique set of features to optimize the delivery of applications. For example, in the Zoho Creator low-code development platform, you'll find a huge library of pre-built apps for operations, HR, finance, sales and marketing, and IT in industries ranging from education to manufacturing, logistics, retail, and more. These apps can also be personalized, which means that you can not only get the app that works for you, but also in a short period of time.
Such a powerful environment for building applications allows businesses to thrive in the best of times and the worst of times.
Start with the Zoho Creator low-code development platform
If you have any questions about Zoho Creator low-code development, our experts will help you understand the potential of using Zoho Creator for rapid app development.