QUICK PROTOTYPING USING JAM-ASTERISK FOR THE CUSTOMIZED FT-2 PROJECT

A customized version of the Flow Through Data Manager II, called FT-2, was designed by AT&T Bell Laboratories to automate many of the operat ions and interfaces of different operations systems at Pacific Bell Te lephone Co. A prototype system was designed using a commercial softwar e package called JAM, which allowed customers to evaluate the operati onal impact of FT-2, while the final system was still under developmen t. The prototype was developed in five weeks, six months before the fi nal system was available for trial at the customer's site. The JAM sof tware package supports both MS-DOS and UNIX* operating systems with p ortable source codes, allowing the majority of the prototype codes to be reused in the final product. To make the system easy to use, we ide ntified distinct users of the system, analyzed their job functions, us ed their terminology in the prototype, organized the information to fi t their jobs, and made them feel comfortable using the system.