Information Systems Development Methodologies

Study Notes

Role and involvement of end users, and trying to predict and measure intangible benefits and costs on the enterprise-wide system are crucial.

Implementation of enterprise-wide systems should be seen as a continuous process.
Ensure that the new system allows users to do what they could do in the old legacy system with extra and value-adding features.
Encourage effective dialogue and engagement with users.
Allow users to play with the enterprise-wide system.
Resistances should be seen as a source of ideas, innovation, and creativity.
Understand that the essence is information, not information technology.
Avoid controlling and planning all aspects, as it will take a life of its own.

Problem Identification, Feasibility Study, Systems Investigation, Systems Analysis, Systems Design, Implementation, and Review & Maintenance are stages of the development lifecycle.

Key aspects of a methodology include promoting purposeful, controlled, and rigorous activities that produce meaningful, relevant, and reproducible results.
A methodology is only a means to an end, not an end in itself.

Different types of methodologies exist due to varying degrees of problem domain, hard and soft, and people's particular mindsets.
Hard methodologies are easier to use, while soft methodologies provide greater insight.

General Systems Theory is an interdisciplinary conceptual framework focusing on the wholeness, pattern, relationship, hierarchical order, integration, and organization of phenomena.
The basic idea behind Systems Theory is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

ETHICS (Effective Technical and Human Implementation of Computer-based Systems) aims to achieve mutual beneficial relationships between employees and organizations, job efficiency, and job satisfaction.
ETHICS considers participation as three categories: consultative democracy, representative democracy, and consensus democracy.

SSM demands high political and interpersonal skills from the user.
The methodology requires abstract and conceptual thinking.
SSM focuses on analyzing problems that require good analysis.
SSM is not popular in real-world issues but is widely used for unstructured problem situations.