System Development Methodologies

Write an essay that demonstrates an understanding of predominant system development methodologies and develop an organizational action plan to evaluate and choose an appropriate system development methodology. This essay should

(1) clearly define the purpose,
(2) provide an overview of predominant systems development methodologies/managerial approaches,
(3) identify the decision criteria and data sources, and
(4) present a plan for data collection, synthesis, & decision making. Note that you are not necessarily advocating a change to Agile but are laying out the requisite steps and information.

Essentially you are laying out what you need to determine if a company should pursue an Agile methodology.

APA Format with Title Page, (no abstract required), Section headers, running header, labeled figures and tables, citations, and references sections.

Submit via CNVS Upload with a Turn It In originality score < 17%.

Sections:
1.0 Introduction
a clear and direct purpose statement for presenting a plan to choose a system development methodology for an organization.

2.0 System Development Methodologies
Provide a brief overview, definitions, and major components (phases, tools, methodologies) of the SDLC (including the purpose of the SDLC in an organization). I suggest stepping through each phase and giving one concrete example of a tool or method in that phase.
Do the same for the Agile System Development Methodology.
Here is a nice comparison/overview: Introduction to Scrum – 7 Minutes

3.0 Identify the decision criteria and data sources
Now that you have established a baseline understanding of two predominant system development methodologies, begin to identify the requisite data and information needed to support an informed decision to choose a methodology. Consider advantages and disadvantages of each (textbook Chapters 01 & 04), including organizational context & culture, technology and infrastructure, industry & competitive environment.
For example, the decision may be different if a company is primarily consumer-oriented versus in a B2B arrangement. Does organizational size, IT department organization/governance/size, company history play a part?
The output of this section is a comprehensive list (not just two) of sources of information that are needed for this decision.
Include various sources and types of data: internal/external, qualitative/quantitative.

4.0 Present a plan for data collection & synthesis
From the identified data sources, present a detailed plan on how to gather the information from the top two most important data sources. Why are these two most important?
The Requirements Modeling/Fact Finding step of the SDLC Analysis phase outlines some techniques. How are data collected, validated, organized, and synthesized from the data sources?
Interviews, Surveys, Observation, Systems Analysis Models, Systems Documentation, etc.? What technique is needed to collect data from the data source. What data are generated (e.g., interview transcript) and how will it be used?

5.0 Analysis and Presentation to Management
Lastly, how would these data be analyzed and presented to management to support a decision? Select appropriate methodology/technology to aid in synthesis (i.e., to process the data) and the expected outcomes and impact toward the final decision.
How would you go about connecting & combining information from different resources?
Consider a table or visual aid that depicts the logic and flow of this decision: decision criteria, data source, collection, synthesis, analysis, and outcome/decision.

For example:
IT Department Management (criteria),
Organizational Chart, Job Descriptions, & Interviews (data source),
contact HR for org. chart/descriptions, interview with CIO, Director, Team Leaders (collection),
transcribe and store interview transcript, summarize by theme and sentiment toward IT department strengths and weaknesses (synthesis),
a table of strong and weak managerial facets of the IT department, determination of a strong managerial control of the IT department or not and how that influences the overall decision (outcome/decision).