Software Prototyping

Software Prototyping
• Rapid software development to validate
requirements
 Uses of system prototypes
• The principal use is to help customers and
developers understand the requirements for the
system
– Requirements elicitation. Users can experiment with a
prototype to see how the system supports their work
– Requirements validation. The prototype can reveal
errors and omissions in the requirements
• Prototyping can be considered as a risk reduction
activity which reduces requirements risks
 Prototyping benefits
• Misunderstandings between software users and
developers are exposed
• Missing services may be detected and confusing
services may be identified
• A working system is available early in the process
• The prototype may serve as a basis for deriving a
system specification
• The system can support user training and system
testing
 Prototyping process

Establish Define
Develop Evaluate
prototype prototype
prototype prototype
objectives functionality

Prototyping Outline Executable Evaluation

plan definition prototype report
 Prototyping benefits
• Improved system usability
• Closer match to the system needed
• Improved design quality
• Improved maintainability
• Reduced overall development effort
Prototyping in the software process
• Evolutionary prototyping
– An approach to system development where an
initial prototype is produced and refined through
a number of stages to the final system
• Throw-away prototyping
– A prototype which is usually a practical
implementation of the system is produced to help
discover requirements problems and then
discarded. The system is then developed using
some other development process
 Prototyping objectives
• The objective of evolutionary prototyping is to
deliver a working system to end-users. The
development starts with those requirements
which are best understood.
• The objective of throw-away prototyping is to
validate or derive the system requirements.
The prototyping process starts with those
requirements which are poorly understood
 Approaches to prototyping

Evolutionary Delivered
prototyping system
Outline
Requirements
Throw-away Executable Prototype +
Prototyping System Specification
 Evolutionary prototyping
• Must be used for systems where the
specification cannot be developed in advance
e.g. AI systems and user interface systems
• Based on techniques which allow rapid system
iterations
• Verification is impossible as there is no
specification. Validation means demonstrating
the adequacy of the system
 Evolutionary prototyping

Develop abstract Build prototype Use prototype

specification system system

Deliver YES System

system adequate?
 Evolutionary prototyping advantages

• Accelerated delivery of the system

– Rapid delivery and deployment are sometimes
more important than functionality or long-term
software maintainability
• User engagement with the system
– Not only is the system more likely to meet user
requirements, they are more likely to commit to
the use of the system
 Evolutionary prototyping
• Specification, design and implementation are
inter-twined
• The system is developed as a series of
increments that are delivered to the customer
• Techniques for rapid system development are
used such as CASE tools and 4GLs
• User interfaces are usually developed using a
GUI development toolkit
 Evolutionary prototyping problems

• Management problems
– Existing management processes assume a
waterfall model of development
– Specialist skills are required which may not be
available in all development teams
• Maintenance problems
– Continual change tends to corrupt system
structure so long-term maintenance is expensive
• Contractual problems
 Prototypes as specifications
• Some parts of the requirements (e.g. safety-
critical functions) may be impossible to
prototype and so don’t appear in the
specification
• An implementation has no legal standing as a
contract
• Non-functional requirements cannot be
adequately tested in a system prototype
 Incremental development
• System is developed and delivered in increments after
establishing an overall architecture
• Requirements and specifications for each increment may be
developed
• Users may experiment with delivered increments while others
are being developed. therefore, these serve as a form of
prototype system
• Intended to combine some of the advantages of prototyping
but with a more manageable process and better system
structure
 Incremental development process
Define system
deliverables

Design system Specify system Build system Validate

architectur e increment increment increment

NO

Deliver final System Validate Integrate

system complete? system increment
YES
 Throw-away prototyping
• Used to reduce requirements risk
• The prototype is developed from an initial
specification, delivered for experiment then
discarded
• The throw-away prototype should NOT be
considered as a final system
– Some system characteristics may have been left out
– There is no specification for long-term maintenance
– The system will be poorly structured and difficult to
maintain
 Throw-away prototyping

Outline Develop Evaluate Specify

requirements prototype prototype system

Reusable
components

Delivered
Develop Validate software
software system system
 Prototype delivery
• Developers may be pressurised to deliver a
throw-away prototype as a final system
• This is not recommended
– It may be impossible to tune the prototype to meet
non-functional requirements
– The prototype is inevitably undocumented
– The system structure will be degraded through
changes made during development
– Normal organisational quality standards may not have
been applied
 Rapid prototyping techniques
• Various techniques may be used for rapid
development
– Dynamic high-level language development
– Database programming
– Component and application assembly
• These are not exclusive techniques - they are
often used together
• Visual programming is an inherent part of
most prototype development systems
 Dynamic high-level languages
• Languages which include powerful data
management facilities
• Need a large run-time support system. Not
normally used for large system development
• Some languages offer excellent UI
development facilities
• Some languages have an integrated support
environment whose facilities may be used in
the prototype
 Choice of prototyping language
• What is the application domain of the
problem?
• What user interaction is required?
• What support environment comes with the
language?
• Different parts of the system may be
programmed in different languages. However,
there may be problems with language
communications
Database programming languages
• Domain specific languages for business systems based around
a database management system
• Normally include a database query language, a screen
generator, a report generator and a spreadsheet.
• May be integrated with a CASE toolset
• The language + environment is sometimes known as a fourth-
generation language (4GL)
• Cost-effective for small to medium sized business systems
 Database programming

Interface
generator Spreadsheet

DB Report
programming generator
language

Database management system

Fourth-gener ation language

 Component and application assembly

• Prototypes can be created quickly from a set of

reusable components plus some mechanism to
‘glue’ these component together
• The composition mechanism must include control
facilities and a mechanism for component
communication
• The system specification must take into account
the availability and functionality of existing
components
 Prototyping with reuse
• Application level development
– Entire application systems are integrated with the
prototype so that their functionality can be shared
– For example, if text preparation is required, a
standard word processor can be used
• Component level development
– Individual components are integrated within a
standard framework to implement the system
– Frame work can be a scripting language or an
integration framework such as CORBA
Reusable component composition

Reusable Component
software Executable
composition
prototype
components framework

Control and
integration code
 Compound documents
• For some applications, a prototype can be created by
developing a compound document
• This is a document with active elements (such as a
spreadsheet) that allow user computations
• Each active element has an associated application which is
invoked when that element is selected
• The document itself is the integrator for the different
applications
Application linking in compound documents

Compound document

Text 1 Table 1 Text 2 Text 3 Sound 1

Table 2 Text 4 Sound 2 Text 5

Word processor Spreadsheet Audio player

 Visual programming
• Scripting languages such as Visual Basic
support visual programming where the
prototype is developed by creating a user
interface from standard items and associating
components with these items
• A large library of components exists to
support this type of development
• These may be tailored to suit the specific
application requirements
 Visual programming with reuse
Hypertext
Date component display component

File Edit Views Layout Options Help

General
12th January 2000 Index
Range checking 3.876
script
User prompt
component +
Draw canvas script
component

Tree display
component
 Problems with visual development

• Difficult to coordinate team-based

development
• No explicit system architecture
• Complex dependencies between parts of the
program can cause maintainability problems
 User interface prototyping
• It is impossible to pre-specify the look and feel of a user
interface in an effective way. prototyping is essential
• UI development consumes an increasing part of overall
system development costs
• User interface generators may be used to ‘draw’ the interface
and simulate its functionality with components associated
with interface entities
• Web interfaces may be prototyped using a web site editor
 REFERENCE
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttTonS0q
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• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onW6HU
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