Creating an application using rapid application development is meant to be simple, but very few guides discuss how to develop an app, step by step. Rapid application development should be easy, but a guide can go a long way.
Steps to create a business app in 6 simple steps
1. Get the Requirements
Start with the people who have a process requirement.
For instance, your HR team might be struggling with managing their employee timesheets process. More than likely, they are using a mess of paper forms, spreadsheets, and emails.
They are probably looking for a way to automate and digitize the process including streamlining the approval process and making the initial form much simpler and faster to fill out.
2. Create the Initial Prototype
To create the initial prototype, create the app with the fields and logic in mind, as the end-user intends. To start, you can create a form that will automatically include the initiator’s name, employee number, and manager. Add a simple table that people can use to log their hours. The table can automatically calculate the number of hours so there are no manual errors.
Then, you can move onto the workflow. You can create a simple approval workflow including the manager of the initiator and then HR processing.
You can also control which fields are seen at each step, adding additional comment fields for management and HR if required that are not visible to others.
3. Receive Feedback
At this point, you are ready to show the app to HR. You can receive a variety of feedback here, such as additional fields they’d like to see. Perhaps they also request you to include some validations for calculating overtime requests. Overtime requests will also require a different conditional approval in the workflow.
Finally, they might ask you to link this information into their HR software to cut down on manual data transfers.
4. Iterate Until You Have Everything
With Kissflow it takes almost no time at all to implement changes. Some things like adding fields and conditional tasks, can be done right in the meeting with the HR team. Other things like creating custom integrations may take a bit longer, but can also be done quickly without any major alterations.
5. Test the App, Does Everything Work?
In traditional software development, testing takes a long time, since the code is usually monolithic and every single part of the app is tested individually.
Using RAD, testing is much less arduous. Here, during the prototyping and feedback phases, a number of bugs and glitches are found, so testing is not much of a hassle.
Since Kissflow is a no-code programming environment, testing is almost non-existent, since these modules and features are already tested to ensure they work perfectly with everything else. Once you’re done with testing, you can deploy the app. You might try the process application with a small group of people first to make sure everything is correct, but you can quickly share it with the entire team.
6. Deployment and Maintenance
Once the app is live, your HR team is free to use the app as they need it. Most additional improvements can be fixed in minutes and deployed immediately throughout the organization. In Kissflow, you can add and remove fields, logic, and permissions just by editing the app in the creation screen at any time. Since you run the app on the Kissflow platform, you don’t have to worry about the old version around as well.
Conclusion
Using Kissflow's Application Development platform, making an app is simple and easy. If you or someone else has an idea for an app in mind, you can take the idea from concept to reality in a very short period of time. If you’re looking for a RAD platform to make work in your organization flow smoother, then try Kissflow. The powerful app creation tool lets you create apps without needing to go through long development cycles. Get a free trial and see if Kissflow is right for you.
