(1) The concept of prototype. Early use of prototypes in manufacturing and mechanical product design, first make a basic model of the product, then improve and improve, and finally get the product that meets the requirements. In software engineering, a prototype is the original model of the software system to be developed, a runnable version of the software that reflects some of the important features of the final system. After obtaining a set of basic requirements descriptions, a small and simple software system was constructed through analysis to meet the basic requirements of users, and then evolved to obtain higher quality products. The prototype method overcomes some of the shortcomings of the traditional software life cycle method. It has the characteristics of fast, flexible and interactive. The core of the method is to replace the unclear requirements specification with the interactive and quickly established prototype. The user runs on the computer. And the prototype system is personally inspired and inspired to provide real feedback to developers through reactions and evaluations. The developer then improves the prototype based on the user's opinion and improves the quality of the final product through multiple iterations of "prototype construction - trial run - evaluation feedback - analysis modification".

(2) Prototype classification. Due to the different purposes of archiving, the way to implement prototypes is different. There are usually three types:

(1) Exploratory type. The purpose of this prototype is to remove the customer's requirements for the target system, determine the desired characteristics, and explore the feasibility of multiple options.

(2) Experimental. Before the prototype was used for large-scale development and implementation, the assessment plan was appropriate and the specification was reliable.

(3) Evolutionary type. The purpose of this prototype is not to improve the specification, but to make the system easy to handle changes, and gradually evolve the prototype into the final system in the process of improving the prototype.

(3) The advantages of prototype analysis are:

(1) Enhance the understanding of software developers and users' needs, and clarify the vague and uncertain software requirements (main functional requirements).

(2) The software prototyping method provides a powerful means of learning.

(3) Using the prototyping method, the performance of the system can be easily determined, the applicability of the main service of the system is confirmed, the feasibility of the system design is confirmed, and the system is finally confirmed as a product.

(4) The version of the software prototype, some can be called the product intact, and some can be modified to become an integral part of the final system, which is conducive to building the system.