Agile technology curves provide the possibility to compare typical characteristics of different systems, like a Rapid Application Development (RAD) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).
Set up time and cost (before Q1): The major difference is that setting up a RAD system is usually much faster cheaper and much cheaper than with the ERP. However a RAD system provides not too many ready components. On the other hand setting up an ERP system is usually pretty much time consuming and the licenses are usually not the cheapest ones, but many pre-configured component and functionalities are delivered.
Effective agile development (between Q1 and Q2): A RAD system usually has got a pretty long effective agile phase, in which use-cases can be fast and efficient delivered. ERP system however works with a lot of half-ready components so they usually provides a smaller agile phase in which the components are configured.
Architecture limit (after Q2): If architecture limit reached than both in a ERP and in a RAD system delivering a new use case will be difficult. For an EPR system, the architecture limit can more or less be reached if the use case can not be delivered by configuration but hard code development scenarios should be used. Certainly it is generally difficult to say if the architecture limit is better for an ERP system or for a RAD, so the following figure provides only a demonstration. Similarly if certain uses cases can be faster or cheaper by RAD or ERP delivered are situation and technology dependent, the following figure shows only the basic characteristics.
Figure 1. Comparing ERP with RADbased in agile technology curve.
