A prototype is a model of an end
or enabling product that is built during the Acquisition Phase
to assist in the system design activities. A prototype can be built to assess a new technology or
an unfamiliar design or manufacturing technique, to verify or validate
a product or component, to assist in eliciting user requirements,
to determine suitability of a product, to assess technical risk,
to characterise performance of the product, and so on. A
prototype can be in a number of forms:
mechanical, electrical, software-based, analytical, and so on.
Other topics in our resources on Systems Engineering related to Prototype include: