RAD is a popular software development methodology employing various tools and techniques to quickly produce minimally-coded software applications. RAD’s essence is prototyping - creating predefined components, structures and methods to quickly develop software models.

RAD’s working software prototypes lack full-scale functionality. They are used primarily for demonstration and requirement gathering, which helps end users envision entire solution stacks. RAD contains built-in and customizeable data, processes and organizational models. Thus, it employs a model-driven and object-oriented approach to developing complete solutions.