Protyping
1 Prototyping
This lecture will examine the role of prototyping in Systems Development. It will describe what prototyping is, why it is used and how it may be applied in Systems Development Projects. It will establish approaches to evaluating a Prototype and finally it will discuss criteria for successful use of prototyping in a Systems Development Project.
1.1 What is a Prototype – and why would we need one?
Prototype can be described as: “A working model of (parts of) an information system, which emphasizes specific aspects of that system.”
(Vonk, 1990)
A prototype is a model of a system.
It is a model with a specific purpose (ref). This may be:
To gain a better understanding of the user’s requirements
To gain a better understanding of development technologies
To allow the customer to explore possibilities
To investigate the feasibility of a development project
It does not necessarily model the whole system. It is a means of “learning by doing”.
Thus, according to Law and Longworth (1987), the main aims of a Prototype are to:
Resolve uncertainty through use
Learn and evaluate before committing large sums of money
Given its purpose, it becomes clear that, if we are going to build a prototype, then it must be done quickly (hence the term “Rapid Prototyping”).
Therefore the key requirements of a prototyping approach are:
Speed of construction
Speed of acquisition of user feedback
Speed of modification
The growth in popularity of prototyping may be viewed as a response to problems of conventional development, such as:
Success of development relying on a “final, complete, consistent and correct set of requirements” (Boar, 1984)
In the development of large systems, the long gap between specification and implementation. (Skidmore and Wroe, 1988)
1.2 What Type of Prototype?
According to Milller, (2006) there are many ways of classifying prototypes. However the most common is stated as being “how the prototype is used”.
Such a
This lecture will examine the role of prototyping in Systems Development. It will describe what prototyping is, why it is used and how it may be applied in Systems Development Projects. It will establish approaches to evaluating a Prototype and finally it will discuss criteria for successful use of prototyping in a Systems Development Project.
1.1 What is a Prototype – and why would we need one?
Prototype can be described as: “A working model of (parts of) an information system, which emphasizes specific aspects of that system.”
(Vonk, 1990)
A prototype is a model of a system.
It is a model with a specific purpose (ref). This may be:
To gain a better understanding of the user’s requirements
To gain a better understanding of development technologies
To allow the customer to explore possibilities
To investigate the feasibility of a development project
It does not necessarily model the whole system. It is a means of “learning by doing”.
Thus, according to Law and Longworth (1987), the main aims of a Prototype are to:
Resolve uncertainty through use
Learn and evaluate before committing large sums of money
Given its purpose, it becomes clear that, if we are going to build a prototype, then it must be done quickly (hence the term “Rapid Prototyping”).
Therefore the key requirements of a prototyping approach are:
Speed of construction
Speed of acquisition of user feedback
Speed of modification
The growth in popularity of prototyping may be viewed as a response to problems of conventional development, such as:
Success of development relying on a “final, complete, consistent and correct set of requirements” (Boar, 1984)
In the development of large systems, the long gap between specification and implementation. (Skidmore and Wroe, 1988)
1.2 What Type of Prototype?
According to Milller, (2006) there are many ways of classifying prototypes. However the most common is stated as being “how the prototype is used”.
Such a
References: Boar, B. H., Application Prototyping, Wiley, 1984. Davis, G. B. and M. H. Olson, Management Information Systems: Conceptual Foundations, Structure, and Development, McGraw-Hill, 1985. Law, D. and G. Longworth, Systems Development Strategies, NCC Publications, 1987. Miller, K., “Prototyping”, In: IS2201/IS2261 Lecture Notes, DOCM, 2006. Pressman, R. S., Software Engineering: a Practitioner’s Approach (2nd Edition), Prentice Hall, 1987 Skidmore, S. and B. Wroe, Introducing Systems Analysis, NCC Publications, 1988. Vonk, R. Prototyping: The Effective use of CASE Technology, Prentice Hall, 1990.