Here are the reasons why you should not prototype:
Reasons not to prototype
Shucks, well that’s that then. If only there was someone who had the skills to focus on business objectives, capture requirements, manage product scope whilst handling user expectations (providing personal counselling to developers is an added bonus). Now where would I find me one of those?!
In all seriousness, I think a number of these disadvantages stem from the more traditional (read historical) method of prototyping whereby the user and developer were entrenched together alone, heads down and emotionally committed to the task at hand. Keep in mind, regardless of who uses it, prototyping is an analysis tool and thus the Business Analyst will add much needed control to the prototyping way.
So now that we have mitigated the risks let us take a look whether there is good reason to do it. Prototyping:
Reasons to prototype
Wait, did I interpret that correctly? We can have improved quality, in a shorter time and at a lower cost? And you said I couldn’t have all three Sir Arthur C. Clarke!
With that said then, I decree every software development projects shall be prototyped! Hold up, not all projects are suitable candidates. Here’s the caution, consider:
Selecting candidate prototyping projects
If you look, the key trait of the advantages above is business, business, business. We know that a project with significant business involvement has the greatest chance of success, perhaps prototyping is a just successful motivator of it?
Filed under: Requirements Analysis, Requirements Elicitation, Solution Assessment Tagged: | #agile, #analysis, #babite, #babokEL, #babokRA, #babokSA, #project, #prototyping, #technique, #validation
Definitely, prototyping is a motivator for a project success. It helps both BA and user set a understanding of the software being developed. It is a tool for collecting requirements process.
I think it helped me much more as a BA than the user … because in the end the users always have their expectations and it is our responsibility to fulfil it. Or not … that’s why prototyping is a power tool.
Thank you for the article.
Nice angle @scheillabiz – agreed: users are usually well aware what it is they need but often find it difficult to articulate. You don’t know, what you don’t know and prototyping is a great analysis tool for the analyst to elicit both explicit and tacit knowledge.
Thanks for commenting!