An Empirical Evaluation of System Development Methodologies

Many methodologies and techniques may be used in the development of information systems. Two widely used methodologies are: system development life cycle, and proto-typing. In this article, we have extensively evaluated the two methodologies based on field data collected from information systems professionals in business and industry. Specifically, the two methodologies are evaluated for their applicability during various life cycle phases, by types of systems, and by the amount of problem structure. Various attributes associated with the methodologies have also been assessed. Our results support the use of a contingency approach for the selection of a proper methodology for systems development

Determinants of Systems Development Methodology Use

Systems development methodologies are not widely used (less than 50% actually use a methodology to guide systems development). With the importance placed on information systems and the current problems in developing systems, why are methodologies not used? The objective of the study proposed herein is to develop a model to assist organizations in assessing the determinants of actual use of systems development methodologies. The authors are currently in the midst of a multi-phase research project designed to build and test the model

METHODOLOGIES FOR SOCIO-TECHNICAL-SYSTEMS (STS) DEVELOPMENT: A COMPARISON

The trends in the macro environment of organizations coupled with advances in information technology have created opportunities for organizations to increase their effectiveness. If managed appropriately, these trends and advances can increase the strategic advantage to the organization. This requires a perspective on the organization and its use of information technology which incorporates social-organizational as well as technical-economic aspects of information technology use. However, the traditional narrow techno-economic focus of system designers and information systems development methodologies, and the consequent neglect of socio-organizational aspects of the systems, has resulted in only a limited increase in organizational effectiveness. Furthermore, in many instances, this has led to a deterioration\u27 of the organizational climate and quality of working life within it, thereby causing systems problems and implementation failures. There is, therefore, a need for an information systems development paradigm and associated methodologies which jointly consider both the social-organizational and the techno-economic aspects of information systems. The socio-technical systems (STS) approach to systems development is one such approach. This paper describes the principles, assumptions, and the development process of the socio-technical systems approach. It then goes on to analyze and compare three socio-technical methodologies (Mumford 1983a; Pava 1983b; and Bostrom and Heinen 1977b) available in the information systems literature. The analysis and comparison of the methodologies indicates that no one methodology is complete and comprehensive in all aspects of STS development. This points to the need for mixing and matching various components of different methodologies and augmenting them where necessary

Sharing the power : knowledge management, empowerment, employee self service and the NZDF : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Information Systems at Massey University

This thesis investigated employee views of the Defence Kiosk System (DKS) through a questionnaire, and compared the results with two empowerment methodologies. These methodologies were Spreitzer and Quinn's Five Disciplines For Empowerment, and Horibe's Employee Decision Making methodology. The DKS is the Employee Self Service (ESS) system of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF). The DKS is a web-based system that employees can use to access their personal records, thereby empowering employees to access their own personnel information and removing the need for them to ask human resources related questions of their administration unit. This provides the NZDF with administrative savings and accurate up to date information that can be used for Knowledge Management (KM). The research begins with a literature review. The literature review established links between Empowerment, KM and ESS. It found that for ESS systems to provide benefits employees must be willing to use them. A questionnaire was developed and sent to a sample of 1000 NZDF employees who had access to the DKS. The response was 350 completed and returned questionnaires, which exceeded the 180 responses required to enable the results to be generalised for the entire NZDF population. Analysis of the questionnaire responses showed that employees believe that the DKS, as an ESS system, meets their personnel information needs and that they were willing to use the DKS. When the results of the survey were compared with the empowerment methodologies the research supported Spreitzer and Quinn's five disciplines model, particularly the fourth and fifth disciplines. The results raised questions about the suitability of using Horibe's employee decision making methodology in the field of personnel management, especially with the advent of employee self sefvice systems

Information systems evaluation methodologies

Due to the prevalent use of Information Systems (IS) in modern organisations nowadays, evaluation research in this field is becoming more and more important. In light of this, a set of rigorous methodologies were developed and used by IS researchers and practitioners to evaluate the increasingly complex IS implementation used. Moreover, different types of IS and different focusing perspectives of the evaluation require the selection and use of different evaluation approaches and methodologies. This paper aims to identify, explore, investigate and discuss the various key methodologies that can be used in IS evaluation from different perspectives, namely in nature (e.g. summative vs. formative evaluation) and in strategy (e.g. goal-based, goal-free and criteria-based evaluation). The paper concludes that evaluation methodologies should be selected depending on the nature of the IS and the specific goals and objectives of the evaluation. Nonetheless, it is also proposed that formative criteria-based evaluation and summative criteria-based evaluation are currently among the most and more widely used in IS research. The authors suggest that the combines used of one or more of these approaches can be applied at different stages of the IS life cycle in order to generate more rigorous and reliable evaluation outcomes

Special Theme of Research in Information Systems Analysis and Design-IV Evaluation Criteria for Information Systems Development Methodologies

The evaluation of information systems development methodologies is becoming increasingly important. Some researchers propose their own criteria for conceptual evaluations. But such criteria are often constrained by the limitation of the researcher\u27s view toward and experience with development methodologies. Furthermore, existing evaluation criteria are either not practical for direct measurement or not tested for validity and reliability. The lack of a generally acceptable, practically valid, and reliable set of criteria for evaluation hinders the development of knowledge in this area. Our study is a step toward developing a systematic process to evaluate information systems development methodologies. We captured the opinions of a group of twenty-eight researchers and practitioners who are experienced in information systems development methodologies. Through a systematic content analysis, the authors classified these criteria into three categories: (1) methodology design, (2) methodology use, and (3) methodology deliverables. The three categories of criteria are not totally separate in that they represent the means and goals of information systems development methodologies. Appropriate criteria should be applied depending on the stages when evaluation is performed

The Process of ISD Methodology Selection and Use: A Case Study

This paper provides empirically-based explanations for the observed low, and partial, use of information systems development (ISD) methodologies. The research reported in this paper examines the process of methodology selection and use in an intensive field study of the early stages of systems development and notes ongoing adaptation of methodologies in response to changing contingencies. The paper concludes that, in many circumstances, methodology adaptation is a necessary part of successful systems development. It also suggests that deeper understanding of the attitudes of different stakeholders to selecting and using ISD methodologies may help to explain this adaptation

Deterministic physical systems under uncertain initial conditions: the case of maximum entropy applied to projectile motion

The kinematics and dynamics of deterministic physical systems have been a foundation of our understanding of the world since Galileo and Newton. For real systems, however, uncertainty is largely present via external forces such as friction or lack of precise knowledge about the initial conditions of the system. In this work we focus in the latter case and describe the use of inference methodologies in solving the statistical properties of classical systems subject to uncertain initial conditions. In particular we describe the application of the formalism of Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) inference to the problem of projectile motion given information about the average horizontal range over many realizations. By using MaxEnt we can invert the problem and use the provided information on the average range to reduce the original uncertainty in the initial conditions, while also achieving additional insights based on the shape of the posterior probabilities for the initial conditions probabilities and the projectile path distribution itself. The wide applicability of this procedure, as well as its ease of use, reveals a useful tool by which to revisit a large number of physics problems, from classrooms to frontier research

THE role of the technology acceptance model in information systems research: a case study

Explaining the factors that lead to use and acceptance of information technology (IT), both at individual and organizational levels, has been the focus of information systems (IS) researchers since 1970s. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is known as such an explanatory model and has increasingly gained recognition due to its focus on theories of human behaviour. Although this model has faced with some criticism in terms of not being able to fully explain the social-technical acceptance of technology, it is still known as one of the best IS methodologies that contributes greatly to explaining it. This paper discusses, describes and explains TAM as one of the well-known information system research methodologies and attempts to demonstrate how this model can be applied in practice in IS research projects. TAM is widely used in different areas of IS studies such as e-commerce, e-business, multimedia and mobile commerce. This paper shows how TAM can be applied in an IS research project by referring to a case study conducted in the area of mobile banking in the UK. This paper aims to contribute to IS research by providing an informed criticism of TAM as well as a clear proposal on how to use it

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history