prototype (redirected from Prototypical Instances)

prototype

1. one of the first units manufactured of a product, which is tested so that the design can be changed if necessary before the product is manufactured commercially

2. Biology the ancestral or primitive form of a species or other group; an archetype

---

Prototype

A first or original model of hardware or software. Prototyping involves the production of functionally useful and trustworthy systems through experimentation with evolving systems. Generally, this experimentation is conducted with much user involvement in the evaluation of the prototype.

A primary use for prototyping is the acquisition of information that affects early product development. For example, if requirements for human-computer interfaces are ambiguous or inadequate, prototyping is frequently used to define an acceptable functional solution. It is a method for increasing the utility of user knowledge for purposes of continuing development to a final product. Information obtained through prototyping is important to designers, managers, and users in identifying issues and problems. Prototyping conserves time and resources prior to the commitment of effort to construct a final product.

In many hardware and software development projects, the first prototype product built is barely usable. It is usually too slow, too big, too awkward in use. Hence, the term throwaway prototype is generally applied to describe this early use of prototyping. Usually this is due to lack of understanding of user requirements. There is no alternative but to start again and build a redesigned version in which these problems are solved.

A developmental prototyping approach for incremental design of subsystems is often used to reduce the risk involved in building a system-level prototype. In this prototyping environment an incremental approach to rapid prototyping of subsystems development is used. This provides for management oversight of the entire process to assure that resource usage is effective and efficient. Product assurance is implemented throughout the process to make certain that the prototype operation contains the necessary components to satisfy subsystem requirements. Requirements analysis is performed and reviewed, then incremental specifications are developed and reviewed, followed by design of the approved specifications, and completed by implementation of the product. See Model theory, Software engineering, Systems engineering