The Importance of Prototyping

by Tyler Throckmorton

Software Developer, Healthcare Leader, Golf Enthusiast, Foodie

You’ve got a problem that needs fixing. Whether it be your company’s name is not known and you feel you need a marketing website to describe who you are and what product or service you provide. Or a more complex business process that requires multiple systems to talk to each other seamlessly. An example could be your telecommunications system which controls hunt groups, routes calls, and displays caller information paired with your CRM to look up client specific data. Both are solutions that software developers often will work on and find ways to improve upon.

You’ve reached out to consultants, software vendors, friends, and old colleagues. Everyone is telling you the same thing, your problem is going to be expensive to solve and take time. Often, they’re not wrong. However, they’re looking at it trying to fully solve it and get a fully fledged solution with all the bells and whistles necessary. For big projects, this can take thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions on top of years of work to complete. Even then, any software developer will tell you it’s never done. There are always ways to improve, make it better, and over these years, you’ll undoubtedly come up with new ideas that you want to incorporate to make it an even better product resulting in Scope Creep.

Now you’re at the fork in the road. Do you spend the time and money to create this product that you’re confident will be valuable and provide a huge improvement to the problem you’re facing? Or do you abandon it and keep trudging along with what you have now? What if I told you there was a third option?

The concept of prototyping isn’t new. There are different levels within it, but it all attempts to provide the same or similar value. The idea is that most people are visual thinkers. You as the client should know what you’re looking for. However, it can often be hard to put into words what you’re looking for. You spend tons of time talking with analysts and project managers explaining what you’re looking for. But then, you’re not sure if they’re going to fully understand what you were asking for. You reach the end of the road, and now you have the solution in front of you. Does it solve the problem you had? Probably. Is it what you imagined? No. It’s disappointing to say the least.

That’s where prototyping comes in. The first level of prototyping is to have someone, often the analyst, create mockups of what the solution should look like. Where the buttons are, the colors, what the text will say. From there, you can “navigate” your solution by walking through the mockups and seeing how everything links together. The second level of prototyping is to have a software developer, often a senior or a lead, take these mockups or details from the analyst and very quickly design it into a functional solution. The goal of this is not always to create a product that’s pretty, or that’s fully integrated. Often, these prototypes may require tons of backend or manual work to make them appear like they work. The “Magic” that happens behind the scenes isn’t there yet. But now, you’re able to see how your solution could work, could look, could behave. You’ve got a prelude and can provide your feedback about what you thought it should look like, do, or behave before you are disappointed.

Now you’re happier about the solution being built and you have more of a say in how it is being built. Even more so, having a prototype is beneficial to the software developers working on the final solution. There’s a place to start from, to plug the logic into, to be able to just clean up the UI design. Often, a prototype expediates the development because it creates a more involved, agile approach allowing additional communication between the development team and you the client to make sure the project is being built how you need it to look and work.

So, what do you think? Do you agree with the importance of prototyping? Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts. There’s always more to learn and ways to improve. Who knows, you may be more of an expert than me!