95 c h a p t e r 5 Risk reduction through prototyping

Investing excessive effort in prototypes

Finally, beware of prototyping activities that consume so much effort that the development team 

runs out of time and is forced to deliver the prototype as the product or to rush through a haphazard 

product implementation. This can happen when you are prototyping the whole solution rather than 

only the most uncertain, high-risk, or complex portions. Treat a prototype as an experiment. You’re 

testing the hypothesis that the requirements are sufficiently defined and the key human-computer 

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