Methodologies for information systems development

Abstract

However persuasive the materials presented thus far in this book, and however well developed the conceptual underpinning of systems development is, this is a field that is characterized by a clear feeling of anxiety about the quality and appropriateness of its practice. Even if we are convinced of the merits of a certain approach, we need to know how to translate it into actual day-to-day working practices in the thousands of organizations across the country that need to develop computer-based information systems. Translating theories and models into detailed prescriptions and sequences of actions for the employees of these organizations to follow is a non-trivial task. In the last decade the most common answer to this question has been a widespread acceptance of the need for more or less comprehensive and detailed descriptions of how to develop information systems, in general described as information systems development methodologies. The word methodology would seem to imply a prescription of how to get something done, and thus methodologies for information systems development are expected to describe how the overall task is to be achieved. Following that sense, methodologies are in general normative and prescriptive, providing detailed guidelines for systems development activities; but we need also to recognize their analytical characteristic too. In stating what should be done, a methodology also implies how a problem area will be investigated and understood. We should also note here the usual caveat that writers in this field offer.