Selecting the appropriate application development methodology

Author Highlights for the Past 35 Years

This essay reviews leading contributions to The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems over the past 35 years, both in terms of identifying leading scholars who published most frequently in the journal as well as papers that have been cited most frequently. Using standard scientometric methods, I identify the leading authors who published five or more papers since 1982. In terms of analyzing highly cited papers, I organize the analysis into four time periods of nine years each, a structure that reveals that The DATA BASE has been a longstanding venue for IS scholars to introduce their early work - whether conceptual or empirical. Notably, several esteemed IS scholars published early conceptual versions of their ideas in The DATA BASE - often many years before they followed up with related work in other journals. In terms of highly cited papers, the analysis in this essay also reveals that The DATA BASE shifted toward publishing empirical papers after 1990 and, despite the prevalence of positivist, quantitative research during the past 25 years, qualitative research has also become prominent in the journal. More recently, the journal has also featured several literature review papers on important topic areas, such as virtual teams, technostress, IT outsourcing, and IT security. This essay reviews leading contributions to The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems over the past 35 years, both in terms of identifying leading scholars who published most frequently in the journal as well as papers that have been cited most frequently. Using standard scientometric methods, I identify the leading authors who published five or more papers since 1982. In terms of analyzing highly cited papers, I organize the analysis into four time periods of nine years each, a structure that reveals that The DATA BASE has been a longstanding venue for IS scholars to introduce their early work - whether conceptual or empirical. Notably, several esteemed IS scholars published early conceptual versions of their ideas in The DATA BASE - often many years before they followed up with related work in other journals. In terms of highly cited papers, the analysis in this essay also reveals that The DATA BASE shifted toward publishing empirical papers after 1990 and, despite the prevalence of positivist, quantitative research during the past 25 years, qualitative research has also become prominent in the journal. More recently, the journal has also featured several literature review papers on important topic areas, such as virtual teams, technostress, IT outsourcing, and IT security.

Software Project Risks and Development Focus

Risks to software projects pose a major dilemma to information systems (IS) project managers. The identification of techniques that may mitigate certain risks can help determine approaches that may be taken during the development process. Based on a survey of Project Management Institute (PMI®) members, the authors identify the major risks to software success and the commonly applied approaches to mitigate the risks. Risks involving the size and complexity of the project were deemed most threatening and were approached with methods to gain more support and provide more training. Certain risks were found to have no common response, and others were found to have inappropriate responses.

An empirical validation of a contingency model for information require-ments determination

A contingency model for system development was subjected to several conceptual and operational adjustments and empirical tests. According to the model, there should be a degree of fit between development project uncertainty and the strategy for determining information requirements, ranging from accepting initial requirements statements to experimenting with prototypes to discover requirements. This study introduced a new IRD strategy construct that focused on the extent of interaction between users and developers. The study also differentiated between perceptual and evidential outcomes, between process and product outcomes, and between users' and developers' points of view. The hypotheses predicted that the degree of fit between project uncertainty and the IRD strategy would account for perceptual and evidential project outcomes from both the user's and developer's points of view. Results indicated that only by relying on the new extent of interaction construct, was support found. From the developers' standpoint, the degree of fit appeared to be related to perceptual assessments of the process and product. From the user's standpoint, the degree of fit was only related to perceptual assessments of the process. There was no support for the hypothesized impact of fit on evidential outcomes.

Systems Development Methodologies: Unanswered Questions

Despite over a decade of study, little is really known about information systems development and the use of systems development methodologies. There has been little evaluation of methodologies in use or examination of the selection, development, adaptation or use of methodologies in practice. This paper discusses this lack of knowledge and its ramifications for research and practice.

Towards Determining the Appropriate Systems Development Environment: The Role of Task Characteristics

The growth of user developed computer-based applications (UDA) presents today's organizations with a means to augment traditional systems development by Information Systems professionals. In order to effectively use the resources offered by these two development environments, organizations need to answer the question: given a systems requirement, which development environment should be used to ensure success. This paper hypothesizes that the answer to this question depends upon the characteristics of the task? Drawing upon previous systems analysis and design research, we examine the effect of a task's degree of structure, interdependency, scope and periodicity, on the appropriate development environment. Results from a preliminary empirical test indicate that these task characteristics are useful in suggesting the appropriate environment for successful development of an information system.

End-user prototyping

An accepted assumption underlying application development is that the user is naive, with little understanding of data processing. All the methods for handling the information system development process, from structured analysis to prototyping, have in common a concern with user/developer communication, yet always under the assumption that users are alike in their capacity to understand data processing.This paper proposes to examine this preconception of the user. With the prevalence of end-user computing, users should no longer be considered universally ignorant of information systems. Moreover, sophisticated information center veterans, as well as microcomputer users, can and do contribute to system development. They are capable of preliminary experimentation with system requirements, in particular those related to user interface. Thus, the concept of end-user prototyping is developed and demonstrated, presenting information systems professionals with an opportunity to profit from enhanced user sophistication.

Phased design

The evolution of information technology from batch processing to on-line, database-oriented systems has spawned the use of new system development methodologies better suited to the needs of complex information systems. The increased demand for large, unstructured decision support systems (DSS) and complicated transaction processing systems has provided the impetus for the development of prototyping and "mixed" methodologies - techniques that combine prototyping with the standard systems development life cycle. The present "mixed" approaches place increased emphasis on one of these two basic methodolgies over the other. This paper contrasts the current techniques and presents a new mixed methodology that integrates prototyping and the system development life cycle into a more balanced approach that has been successfully used in the development of several application systems.