If you have time to rewrite the prototype twice, you also have time to write and maintain the documentation which would have made it unnecessary to rewrite the

If you have time to rewrite the prototype twice, you also have time to write and maintain the documentation which would have made it unnecessary to rewrite the prototype twice. Not saying iterating the code is always bad, but it shouldn't be a substitute for sufficient up-front planning that would have saved programmer time. And yes, the prototype usually ships. There is often not enough time to completely rewrite it, let alone fix all the bugs and add all the necessary features.