End-User Involvement In Software Prototyping

Abstract

Software prototyping is an attractive alternative approach to systems development, within which end-users exercise with a series of prototypes in a working environment. Such interactions offer an excellent scope for meaningful participation of end-users in the system development process. This is crucial for the success of a project. However, despite its significance, relatively little attention has been paid towards the management of end-user involvement. Advocates of prototyping approach merely express a need for active user participation in the prototype development process. They fail to offer any practical guidelines. Moreover, few documented case studies concerning management of user involvement within a prototype project have been published. It is argued that managing user participation is not a trivial task and it requires considerable attention. In this paper, the authors propose a framework that relates degree of user involvement with the type of prototyping approach adopted and the stages of prototype development process. Keywords: Software prototyping, user involvement, systems development, user management.