Rapid Software Prototyping Using Ajax and Google Map API

Nowadays, when the evolution of IT tools is faster than ever, the user´s needs are evolving even faster. For a software company such a context is difficult to be handled because, within a classical development cycle, the development of an application takes several months or years delivery. A rapid software prototyping could be very useful in those cases helping the user to rethink its needs in terms of functionalities and interfaces. We study how the emergence of new web tools, which allow developers to use a large predefined set of data and functionalities through free public APIs (e.g., Google maps) can help to achieve rapid software prototyping. This article will use a real-time example of rapid software prototyping for military applications. In the first part, we show past difficulties for designing such systems. In the second part, we show how the rapid prototyping strategy becomes relevant with the emergence of web tools. In the third part we present the technical implementation of the project. Finally we conclude about perspectives and limitations of this method.