Prototyping Oriented Software Development

This book is intended for anyone who plans, designs and implements software systems, for anyone who is involved with quality assurance, and hence for anyone who is interested in the practicability of modern concepts, methods and tools in the software development process. The book aims at software engineers and at students with specialized interests in the area of software engineering. The reader is expected to be familiar with the fundamental concepts of software engineering. In writing the book, the authors tap years of experience in industrial projects and research work in the development of methods and tools that support the software development process. Perhaps now more than ever, the buzzword "software crisis" serves to alert us that software systems are often error-prone, that significant diffi culties arise in mastering complexity in the production of software systems, and that the acceptance and adequacy of software products is significantly lower than is the case with other technical products. The following goals have been suggested for the improvement of the software development process: • exact fulfillment of user requirements • increased reliability and robustness • greater modularity of both the development process and the product • simple and adequate operation, i. e. , better ergonomics • easy maintainability and extensibility • cost-effective portability • increased reusability of software components • reduced costs for production, operation and maintenance VI Preface Research and development work in the area of software engineering has in creased dramatically in recent years.

Prototyping is an approach used in evolutionary system development. In this book, the authors show which forms of prototyping can be employed to tackle which problems. They take a look at the tools used in everyday software development with a view to determining their suitability for prototyping, and attempt to elucidate prototyping as a methodological concept. Part I of the book looks at prototyping as an approach for constructing and evaluating models. Traditional approaches and phase-oriented life cycle plans are discussed. Prototyping overcomes fundamental problems associated with life cycle plans. The authors present their own concept of evolutionary system development. Part II shows to what extent technical support of evolutionary system development is possible. Various tools for supporting prototyping are discussed and prospective trends are indicated. Criteria are listed to help the reader choose between the various development environments currently available or likely to become available in the near future. Case studies are used to illustrate how prototype construction can be integrated in software projects.

Object-Orientation and Prototyping in Software Engineering is an exciting new text that is essential reading for anybody who needs to design, develop and implement software systems. The methods and tools for rationalising production and improving the quality of software are comprehensively examined. Prototyping and object-oriented software construction, and their relationship to the software development process, are presented in great detail. The fundamentals of object-oriented programming are investigated so thoroughly that readers can quickly begin to apply the concepts and develop software for themselves.

For programmers interested in object-oriented methods, this how-to book provides a guide for understanding and practicing one of the new development paradigms--the object-oriented rapid prototyper--that can produce high-quality, clearly-documented, easily-maintainable software providing the highest possible user satisfaction with minimum total effort.

"This conference will focus on the user-oriented development of information systems. Against a background of recent concepts for the implementation of distributed systems based on workstation computers, various communicational, organizational and social issues gain increasing importance in the construct ion of computer based information systems. There is an urgent need to integrate end-users and other affected groups into the development process. New strategies for system development are thus needed. " This was the beginning of the Call for Papers to the Working Conference on Prototyping. Working in the fields of user-oriented software construct ion and the analysis of communication problems between developers and users we, that is the GMD team involved in this conference and in preparing its Proceedings, sooner or later came across various new concepts to overcome the problems sketched above. Concepts focusing on the quick construct ion of an operative system such as "rapid prototyping" or concepts aiming at the human and organizational side of the development process such as "Systemeering". Even on a second look, the multitude of different approaches, terms and tools still caused confusion. But despite the differences every concept seemed to have something to do with "Prototyping". This, however, proved to be of little help to us, because the term "Prototyping" itself turned out to be quite "fuzzy". In this obviously confused situation we decided that it was time for a working con ference.

The cost of producing software worldwide now approaches $250 billion annually--much of it delivered late and over budget. This book offers a better way--prototyping. The author suggests incorporating the input of end-users early on, radically changing the software process itself. Controversial and highly readable.

This book describes how object-oriented language and object-oriented ideas can be employed throughout the software project. It describes the software engineering process from requirements analysis up to acceptance testing and contains such topics as unit testing, and system design. The book uses the C++ programming language and is intended for both the undergraduate student and the industrial developer. Material on the relationship between object-oriented techniques and prototyping is also included.

Effective Prototyping for Software Makers is a practical, informative resource that will help anyone—whether or not one has artistic talent, access to special tools, or programming ability—to use good prototyping style, methods, and tools to build prototypes and manage for effective prototyping. This book features a prototyping process with guidelines, templates, and worksheets; overviews and step-by-step guides for nine common prototyping techniques; an introduction with step-by-step guidelines to a variety of prototyping tools that do not require advanced artistic skills; templates and other resources used in the book available on the Web for reuse; clearly-explained concepts and guidelines; and full-color illustrations and examples from a wide variety of prototyping processes, methods, and tools. This book is an ideal resource for usability professionals and interaction designers; software developers, web application designers, web designers, information architects, information and industrial designers. * A prototyping process with guidelines, templates, and worksheets; * Overviews and step-by-step guides for 9 common prototyping techniques; * An introduction with step-by-step guidelines to a variety of prototyping tools that do not require advanced artistic skills; * Templates and other resources used in the book available on the Web for reuse; * Clearly-explained concepts and guidelines; * Full-color illustrations, and examples from a wide variety of prototyping processes, methods, and tools. * www.mkp.com/prototyping