In case studies, Evolutionary Prototyping has decreased development effort dramatically, by from 45 to 80 percent (Gordon and Bieman 1995). To achieve this kind of reduction, you must manage development risks carefully, particularly the risks of poor design, poor maintenance, and feature creep. If you don't do that, overall effort can actually increase.

Prototyping yields its benefits quickly. Capers Jones estimates that Evolutionary Prototyping will return roughly two dollars for every dollar spent within the first year, and scaling up to roughly ten dollars for every dollar spent within four years (Jones 1994).

Prototyping also produces steady, visible signs of advancement, improving progress visibility and contributing to the impression that you're developing rapidly. That can be especially useful when the demand for development speed is strong.

The up-front cost of initiating an evolutionary-prototyping program is low—only the costs needed for developer training and prototyping tools.