James Martin is one of the pioneers of RAD in the 1980’s. He wrote a book called Rapid Application Development (Macmillan, 1991). When we refer to RAD, generally we are not referring to James Martin RAD unless we specify it as “James Martin RAD”. This is the case because RAD has expanded beyond what James Martin published in his book.

James Martin’s RAD model uses four phases: requirements planning, user design, construction and cutover. In requirements planning all of the stakeholders get together to work out the requirements and the project’s goals. It is done in a general way and when everyone agrees, the next phase begins.

User design involves the team members and the users getting together to convert the above requirements into a design. They use focus groups, workshops, prototyping and brainstorming to develop a workable design.

The third phase, construction, is when the developers begin to code. Users continue to review what has been developed and provide their input and suggestions for improvement.

The last phase, cutover, is when the developers deliver the finished product to the users. There are a few cutover strategies you might use.