Software Prototyping


Rapid software development to
validate requirements

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 1

Objectives

To describe the use of prototypes in different
types of development project

To discuss evolutionary and throw-away
prototyping

To introduce three rapid prototyping techniques -
high-level language development, database
programming and component reuse

To explain the need for user interface prototyping

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 2

Topics covered

Prototyping in the software process

Prototyping techniques

User interface prototyping

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 3

System prototyping

Prototyping is the rapid development of a system

In the past, the developed system was normally
thought of as inferior in some way to the required
system so further development was required

Now, the boundary between prototyping and
normal system development is blurred and many
systems are developed using an evolutionary
approach

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 4

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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 5

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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 6

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©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 7
Prototyping benefits

Improved system usability

Closer match to the system needed

Improved design quality

Improved maintainability

Reduced overall development effort

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 8

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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 9

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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 10

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©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 11
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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 12

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©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 13
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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 14

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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 15

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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 16

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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 17

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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 18

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©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 19
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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 20

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©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 21
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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 22

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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 23

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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 24

Prototyping languages

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 25

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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 26

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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 27

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©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 28
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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 29

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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 30

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©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 31
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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 32

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©Ian Sommerville 2000
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Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 33
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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 34

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Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 35
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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 36

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

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 37

Key points

A prototype can be used to give end-users a concrete
impression of the system’s capabilities

Prototyping is becoming increasingly used for
system development where rapid development is
essential

Throw-away prototyping is used to understand the
system requirements

In evolutionary prototyping, the system is developed
by evolving an initial version to the final version

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 38

Key points

Rapid development of prototypes is essential. This may
require leaving out functionality or relaxing non-
functional constraints

Prototyping techniques include the use of very high-
level languages, database programming and prototype
construction from reusable components

Prototyping is essential for parts of the system such as
the user interface which cannot be effectively pre-
specified. Users must be involved in prototype
evaluation

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 8 Slide 39