“I’ve got the idea of the century!” proclaims Bea Kwicke, a new systems analyst with your systems group.“Let’s skip all this SDLC garbage and just prototype everything. Our projects will go a lot more quickly, we’ll save time and money, and all the users will feel as if we’re paying attention to them instead of going away for months on end and not talking to them.”

a. List the reasons you (as a member of the same team as Bea) would give her to dissuade her from trying to scrap the SDLC and prototype every project.
b. Bea is pretty disappointed with what you have said. To encourage her, use a paragraph to explain the situations you think would lend themselves to prototyping.

a. The SDLC should not be scrapped for every project because some systems may be prematurely shaped before the problem or opportunity being addressed is thoroughly understood. Also, using prototyping as an alternative may result in using a system that is accepted by specific group of users but which is inadequate for overall system needs. In many situations, prototyping can be successfully integrated with the SDLC approach. For well-understood systems, a straight SDLC approach has proven its worth.

b. In novel or complex situations, prototyping is an ideal mechanism for better understanding user requirements, and for obtaining user feedback to improve system effectiveness. In addition, prototyping has proven useful when incorporated into the SDLC. This integration is particularly useful in better ascertaining user needs.