I read an interesting article in Forbes magazine that nowadays the traditional waterfall model of software development is being replaced by the Rapid Application Development Model.
The below link gives you information on the RAD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_application_development
My question is how far is this true or in other words from experienced software engineers or developers here i would like to know if they have found it useful compared to waterfall model of development.
Waterfall model is just a model. It is not real-life. It can not be real-life for decent-sized real-life projects. People just can't see the details of the project with enough accuracy before it starts. However, Managers loves waterfall. They can "see" clearly what's going to happen, and they have who to blame if it doesn't.
Modern methodologies are more realistic and gives better results. However, managers don't have who to blame anymore... I believe that since more managers nowdays are former-coders, and since projects are much more dynamic these days, agile methodologies and much more common.
Moreover, in many organizations that appear to work waterfall - this is only a show for the management, while real development is managed with other methodologies, or even no methodology at all. From my experience, in waterfall organizations, the real methodologies are very loose, while in agile organizations the management is usually smart enough to know what's really going on.