Prototyping and Specifying: Principles and Practices of a Mixed Approach

An empirical interpretation suggests that mixed approaches to software development will benefit from the strengths of both specifying and prototyping. On functionality, robustness, ease of use, and ease of learning mixed approaches led to products of a quality that was at least comparable to the products of specialized approaches based on either specifying or prototyping. Moreover, the Spiral Model was experienced as a useful framework for combining specifying and prototyping approaches to software development.