Prakash makes an excellent point! There may be times when the purpose for building a prototype can be categorized, but different cases may place individual projects within different categories at different times. My last position (prior to launching my own consulting and media firm) was at a consumer products innovation company that sounds a bit like what you offer. If your question is asking if there is a "standard" term that encompasses ALL the names that CLIENTS give this particular deliverable then I would tell you it depends on what is delivered.

In my experience, the name of the prototype deliverable depends on what is incorporated into the prototype. If it is the first prototype that you made and it is very rough but encompasses the basics of the concept, then we termed that a "proof-of-concept" and it only served as a representation that the concept was possible to create.

If the prototype is much smoother, but only has focused on the engineering of the product to articulate/function the way the client originally envisioned and this prototype can do what it was conceptualized to do, then we called that a "functional prototype."

When the prototype finally had the engineering worked out and we began adding the final design/aesthetic touches to the object to make it look more like a finished product, we called that the "working prototype" meaning it is basically what the end product will look like only not all polished up and ready to go.

Hopefully that helped a bit! If I was totally off on understanding your question, I apologize!

posted July 14, 2008

Len, in my experience a prototype or proof-of-concept is used to remove some level of doubt from a prospect's mind. Ive seen the terms listed above interchangeably. Regardless of what you call your deliverable, the real effort should be focused on defining expectations and "success" with the prospect. I have learned the hard way that without these definitions "prototypes" can scope creep their way to "almost-free products".

Good Luck

Kevin Sasser
www.thesaleswars.com

posted July 14, 2008

To me, a "prototype" is something that does at least part of what the actual product would do. This is as opposed to a "model," which only LOOKS like the product. This definition presupposes that the product isn't available yet, and won't be until some questions are answered. This is how prototypes answer questions:

* making the product real for (at least some) customers and investors; making them feel that real progress is being made
* enabling iteration and change, especially on required design features, early in the design process
* enabling detection of errors, leading to better solutions, early in the design process
* proving that the system is manufacturable, or even feasible
* although users may find it difficult to describe what they want in a system, they usually recognize what they want/don't want when they see it

You ought not to limit yourself to the "consulting industry" here. They're not the only ones concerned. From where I sit, they're not even major players in prototyping.

Links:

• http://www.tcnj.edu/~rgraham/rhetoric/prototyping.html

posted July 14, 2008

From information theories - any system is defined as sum of it's elements and relationships between them. When you create simple sum of elements, than your system (product) only "looks like the real one" (mocup), but it does not contain relationship between elements. Once you include relationships (partial functionality or interactivity), you are creating a prototype. Prototype does not have final look and complete set of functionality as final product. In commercial terms - while product can be sold, as it "does something", prototype has no real commercial value as it's only function is to emulate the final product. In digital prototyping - due to development of tools - borders between prototype and final product are getting increasingly blurred. We're a startup in digital film and games prototyping - dubbed previs - or previs, and in this area some prototypes already exceed quality of some animation for TV series. Although it's very difficult to precisely set expectation levels, and define when prototype is good enough, we learned that clients are satisfied and are signing-off whenever they reach proof of concept stage, where prototype showcases critical mass of ideas that will fit into final product. Last year - I did prototype for software using very advanced tool called Anark. In this case - I had reversed problem - having to remind clients at all times that what we did was not a final product but only a prototype. This was just loud thinking and I hope it helps a bit.

posted July 17, 2008