Meredith Corporation publishes books and magazines, owns and operates television stations, and has a real estate marketing and franchising service. Meredith has 11 different systems that do not communicate with each other. Management wants an executive information system that provides them with the correct and timely information they need to make good business decisions. Meredith has decided to use prototyping to develop the system.

Required
a. Identify three questions you would ask Meredith personnel to determine systems requirements. What information are you attempting to elicit from each question?
b. Explain how prototyping works. What would system developers do during the iterative process? Why would you want the fewest iterations possible?
c. Would you want the prototype to be operational or nonoperational? Why? If it were an operational prototype, what would have to happen? If it were a nonoperational prototype, how could the prototype be used?
d. Suppose the company decides the prototype system is not practical, abandons it, and takes some other approach to solving its information problem. Does that mean prototyping is not a valid systems development approach? Explain your answer.