Prototyping: An Alternative Approach To Systems Devleopment Work

Abstract

The traditional approach to performing systems development work on a company’s accounting information system is initially discussed in this article. It encompasses analysis, design, implementation, and follow-up work. Following the discussion of the traditional approach, an alternative, and less used, approach to systems development work is then examined. This approach is called prototyping, whereby a simplified working software model of a company’s accounting information system is developed. After discussing how prototyping works, both the advantages and disadvantages of this approach to systems development work are analyzed. To test empirically the traditional and prototyping approaches, this author worked with a consulting firm on three different companies’ systems problems. Both of these systems development approaches were used in each company to help solve its problems. The results from the systems development work on the three companies appear to indicate that using either of the two approaches will lead to the same major characteristics in companies’ newly designed and implemented information systems.