Scale models and rapid prototyping
Mark Weiser · ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes · 1982
A prototype of a system is a model of that system which sacrifices accuracy in some areas (such as ease of change) for a quick check of the system's function. A prototype is therefore one kind of scale model-- a model accurate in some ways but inaccurate in others. Three different ways to build scale models of software correspond to the accurate modeling of the following three aspects of a software system: user interface, functionality, and performance. A prototype accurate in one of these areas will usually deliberately ignore accuracy in the other two. Specific scaling of results in a software scale model will be necessary depending upon what aspect has been ignored.