Final answer:
Software prototyping involves creating a partial or preliminary model to test and evaluate design decisions. Physical or virtual prototypes are built, assessed, and refined based on performance relative to the design constraints and criteria before proceeding to the final product.
Step-by-step explanation:
Which of the following is TRUE about the software prototyping? The correct answer is A. A partial, possible, or preliminary implementation of a proposed new product. The prototype in the context of software development serves as a trial model of the design which is built to test design decisions and identify potential problems. It may not be the complete system but may implement only a portion of the design to evaluate its performance and further refine it.
Prototyping is a crucial phase in the software development life cycle, where a model is developed to understand the intricacies of the software's functionality. It could either be a physical prototype, which is built out of various materials possibly different from the final product to save cost and time, or a virtual prototype, created using a computer-aided design and drafting (CADD) program, to simulate the system virtually.
The process of testing and evaluation of a prototype is meant to reveal weaknesses or provide information to improve the design. If testing procedures indicate that the prototype does not meet the necessary criteria or constraints, the design will often be refined. Sometimes, if the prototype fails to meet the criteria thoroughly, the design team may go back to the drawing board for more concept generation and then select another concept, which is very common in the spiral design approach to software development.