ABSTRACT
Executive summary: Prototypes are not development methodologies themselves, but rather they are partial replicas of larger applications built in order to experiment with key algorithms. Software prototypes come in two flavors—disposable and evolutionary. As the name implies, disposable prototypes are used to examine critical algorithms and are then discarded. Evolutionary prototypes are also used to examine critical algorithms, but are then used to grow and morph into a full application. Because prototypes are usually built in a hurry without formal quality control, evolutionary prototypes can be hazardous. Prototypes are very common in 2016 and have been since the software industry began in the 1950s. One unique feature of disposable prototypes is that they may be built with special tools and languages not planned for the actual product; that is, Mathmatica10 or Excel are useful for mathematical algorithms but may not be suited for the actual working application.
