A survey of applications systems prototyping in industry

Managers of information systems development are faced with a substantial backlog of development projects. Traditional approaches to developing systems can not keep pace with new application demand. New methods must be found to develop systems. This study investigates prototyping, an approach that promises order-of-magnitude reductions in the time and effort required to implement satisfactory information systems.A mail survey was used to collect information about systems development and prototyping in Fortune 500 firms. Data was collected on methodologies, tools, and practices from the Directors of Information Systems. The findings suggest that a large number of organizations are prototyping and consider it successful. Generic high level prototyping tools are rated and the reasons for replacing prototypes with conventionally developed systems are explored.