While agile methods represent the latest approach to system prototyping, rapid
application development (RAD), which is described in Chapter 4, remains a popular
strategy. Using RAD methods, a team of users, managers, and IT staff members works
together to develop a model of the information system that evolves into the completed
system. The RAD team defines, analyzes, designs, and tests prototypes using a highly
interactive process, which is shown in Figure 4-5 on page 146.
Systems analysts also use prototyping to verify user requirements, after which the
prototype is discarded and implementation continues, as shown in Figure 7-28 on the
next page. The approach is called design prototyping, or throwaway prototyping. In this
case, the prototyping objectives are more limited, but no less important. The end product of design prototyping is a user-approved model that documents and benchmarks the
features of the finished system.