Software Engineering - Old Questions

5. Explain why, for large systems development, it is recommended that prototypes should be throw-away prototypes.

:Large systems are usually developed by different teams and these require a common reference framework (the system requirements) for developing the system. Throwaway prototypes can be used to help develop and validate these requirements to increase confidence that these are appropriate.

Large systems usually have a long lifetime, so maintainability is an important issue. Since prototypes generally undergo many changes during development, the resultant loss in design integrity ("structurdness") can make maintenance very difficult. So throwaway prototypes is used.