Prototyping Methods
Through research, I’ve learned about two different methods of prototyping: Evolutionary Prototyping, and Throw-Away Prototyping. These prototyping methods both have their pros and cons.
Evolutionary Prototyping:
The idea behind evolutionary prototyping is that an initial prototype is presented to the user. The user then provides feedback and suggestions for improvements. This feedback is then actioned by the developer who then presents a more refined prototype, where the user once more provides feedback. This process is repeated, so at each stage, the prototype ‘evolves’ towards the final system, hence the term, ‘evolutionary prototyping’.
The advantages of evolutionary prototyping are various. Firstly, due to iterating the prototype so often, the end product is very likely to meet the user’s satisfaction. Secondly, it also allows refinement of an existing program, meaning that any changes that occur can be done extremely quickly.
However, the disadvantages to evolutionary prototyping include that, due to the amount of iterations the product goes through, it can be difficult to project an accurate date for the finished product to ship. As well as this, assuming the code isn’t written efficiently, deleting and changing the code can cause issues at every iteration which will need to be solved.
Throw-Away Prototyping:
With throw-away prototyping, only a small part of the system is developed, and then given to the end user to try out and evaluate. The user then provides feedback which can quickly be incorporated into the development of the main system. The prototype is then discarded, or ‘thrown away’.
The objective of throw-away prototyping is to ensure that the system requirements are validated and clearly understood. The throw-away prototype is NOT considered part of the final system. Instead, it is simply there to aid understanding and reduce the risk of having poorly-designed requirements. The full system gets developed alongside the prototypes and incorporates the changes needed.
One advantage to throw-away prototyping is that, due to how the prototypes only focus on one part or system of the overall product, the speed at which they can be put together is incredibly fast. In addition, the end user is only focused on one aspect of the system, making them focus on giving precise feedback.
However, one disadvantage with throw-away prototyping is that all the man-hours of putting together the throw-away prototypes are lost, unlike in evolutionary prototyping. However, the benefits may outweigh the drawbacks.