Does Prototyping Help or Hinder Good Requirements? What Are the Best Practices for Using This Method?

A software prototype is a partial, possible, or preliminary implementation of a proposed new product according to Wiegers and Beatty (2013). Poor requirements are in most cases the major cause of late products with so many bugs and design flaws. An effective prototyping process can reduce cost and improve customer satisfaction and delight (Wilson, 2010). A prototyping with an effective approach can also be used to validate and extract assumptions and requirements that exist among the product team. It is absolutely important to understand that requirements may have unwanted side effects before the creation of the final product which only a prototype can expose. Arnowitz, Arent and Berger (2007) suggested that too often in the software process, design and creation are crammed into the late stages when there is little time available for prototyping and validation, thus leading to high-risk software development. This book will first cover a review of the literature, and secondly it will explore the significance of prototyping and examine its benefits.