Prototype

Description

A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. The benefits of a prototype include:

• freedom to make mistakes and fail fast and fail forward.
• identify issues up front, which gives you more time for resolution
• demonstrate ideas to the team and client

Before we can work on the prototype, we need to identify candidates:

• Identify the external application (if any)
• Identify high risk components
• Identify unknown interfaces
• Identify user interface preferences

Prototype Plan

1. Identify which component to prototype
   • Identify the hardware and external software your product will use
   • Identify the component those requirements will be mapped to
2. Plan the effort
   • You may want to create a Kanban board (or some schedule/plan) for the prototyping effort
   • Create detailed tasks for completing the prototype
   • Divide responsibilities
   • Hold team members accountable
3. Design the prototype
   • Create a graphical representation
   • Define interface communications; systems tend to fail at integration points
4. Determine components
   • Hosting - where will the prototype be hosted?
   • Language - which language is best?
   • Tools - git, third party applications, etc.
5. Define test cases
   • Success and failure cases
   • Edge cases
   • For each test case list:
     • What is being tested
     • Inputs
     • Expected outputs
   • Run test cases and note success or failure
6. Implementation
   • Divide up responsibilities
   • May not be be in the same language
   • “Code” may vary based on the prototype
7. Present results