The efficacy of matching information systems development methodologies with application characteristics – an empirical study

Abstract

An experimental study was conducted to determine whether a data-centered system development methodology produced system designs superior to those from a process-centered methodology when applied to a data-intensive system problem. Experimental subjects (N=30) were advanced undergraduate systems analysis students who were given standardization training in system development techniques and then randomly divided into two groups. One group was taught to use a data-centered methodology and the other a process-centered methodology. Both groups then “solved” a system design problem that was intentionally designed to be data-intensive. The resulting designs were systematically scored for quality using a panel of system development experts. Results showed that the system designs produced by the data-centered group were not significantly better (p < 0.05) than those produced by the process-centered group. The quality of the system designs by both of the methodology assisted groups were found to be significantly superior (p < 0.01) to those produced by the group using no methodology whatsoever. This suggests that the development of system development methodologies that are geared toward specific application development technologies (hypertext, object-oriented, or rapid prototyping, for example) may not have merit and that further investment in “strongly typed” development methodologies may not be productive.