Achieving quality improvement through understanding and evaluating information systems development methodologies

Since the 70s literally hundreds of different methods and tools have appeared each claiming to ease the life of the developer and the user by achieving improved productivity without compromising the quality of the software artefact. These methodologies range from integrated collections of procedures to single technique, notations, 4GLs and tools for supporting the process at the various stages of the systems lifecycle [1, 2, 3, 4].
This paper discusses how an organisation wishing to improve their development practices embarks onto the time-consuming and expensive process of evaluation of methods and tools. The underlying complexity and application domain will themselves be decisive in the choice of methodology. The improvement process starts with the understanding phase. Here, we need to identify the important features of a methodology such as usability, portability, adaptability and functionality, and the nature of the problem(s) the methodology will apply to. We draw the distinction between problem, methodology (procedures, techniques) and tools and discuss their interrelationships [4, 7]. The evaluation phase starts with the specification of acceptance criteria and it involves the study of the features identified during the understanding phase against these criteria. Evaluations can be qualitative and quantitative.

Published paper from Transactions on Information and Communications Technologies vol 11, © 1995 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3517. Reproduced in this repository with permission of WIT Press

Software Quality Management III Vol 2 Measuring and Maintaining: 3rd International conference : Papers