Automatic Reuse of Prototypes in Software Engineering: A Survey of Available Tools

Abstract

The use of prototypes as an excellent mechanism for communication between software users has been fully accepted in the literature. Both the academic and business worlds agree on its use as a software technique, used primarily to capture requirements and as a means of communication with the user. However, often, prototypes are developed very quickly or without the collaboration of the users. This is one of the main reasons why the real power of the prototypes is not used in software development. The initial hypothesis of this research is that this problem occurs because prototypes are regarded as disposable milestones. This paper analyzes whether there are adequate tools on the market to help development teams to reuse prototypes as an exceedingly mechanism for starting and expediting new software development projects. With the present study we show different tools for prototypes that, even though they are a preliminary evaluation, show the disadvantages to be solved in the future development and research of solutions.