Rapid application development

A system to enables Rapid Application Development ("RAD") is provided. The system provides an object model of an ERP application, which enables software developers to customize the ERP applications. The object model provides a base class that is inherited by each object class. The base class provides an invoke function that is implemented by each object class. During compilation, the RAD system compiles each invocation of a function of an object into a call to a dynamic component passing an identifier of the object, an identifier of the function to be invoked, and the parameters to be passed to the function. The RAD system dynamically compiles, assembles, and instantiates object classes as needed. Because objects are bound at runtime, rather than at compile time, when the source code of an object is modified, the entire ERP application does not need to be recompiled into monolithic IL code and the compilation of object classes is deferred until an object of that class is needed during runtime. The object model thus significantly decreases the time required to customize and extend an ERP application according to the needs of an individual customer.