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Rapid application development (RAD) using modeling tools has emerged as a way to swiftly reduce application development backlogs across the enterprise. Now Mendix is taking that concept a step further via the introduction of Mendix Model Share, a mechanism through which developers can share and reuse application models created using Mendix RAD tools.
Gottfried Sehringer, vice president of marketing at Mendix, says that rather than continuously reinventing the wheel, Mendix Model Share allows developers to model specific sets of processes in a way that enables them to be reused across any number of applications.
In general, RAD tools exposed via the cloud are being embraced by a new generation of citizen developers. Because it’s both difficult to find professional developers and expensive to fund application development projects, many organizations are using individuals inside their lines of business organizations to create applications using RAD modeling tools.
This approach not only reduces application development costs, it also often allows organizations to do an end run around a centralized application development process that typically has a long pipeline. Instead of waiting months for centralized IT organizations to develop an application, the line of business organization can build their own application in a matter of weeks.
Of course, many centralized IT organizations are also starting to figure this out. It’s not uncommon for IT organizations these days to point internal departments toward RAD modeling tools as part of an effort to reduce their own application development backlogs.
The degree to which RAD tools might supersede traditional application development frameworks inside the enterprise remains to be seen. But at a time when organizations are more dependent on application software than ever, patience with traditional application development methodologies is increasingly growing thin.
