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An exploratory study on systems development methodologies for web-based applications Mohamad Noorman Masrek, Norhayati Hussin and Norashimawati Tarmuchi Faculty of Information Management, MARA University of Technology, Shah Alam, Malaysia
Study on SDM for web-based applications 137 Received 13 February 2008 Accepted 20 March 2008
Abstract Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to investigate the status of systems development methodologies (SDM) usage for developing web-based application in Malaysian organizations. In addition, it also seeks to investigate the use of techniques and tools for web-based application development. Design/methodology/approach – The study employed the use of a cross-sectional survey method with 200 questionnaires sent to information systems managers. A total of 66 usable questionnaires were returned. Findings – The use of SDM that are meant for web-based applications is still very low among Malaysian organizations. The majority of respondents indicated that the SDM being used were adapted on a project basis. Malaysian systems developers were more inclined to use techniques that were much suited for traditional applications. Nevertheless, the use of systems development tools was quite overwhelming. Despite acknowledging the merits of using SDM, respondents also indicated problems associated with their usage. Research limitations/implications – The number of respondents participated in the study was low and furthermore data were collected employing a cross-sectional design instead of longitudinal design. Originality/value – The paper provides empirical evidence regarding the use of SDM, techniques and tools for developing web-based applications. Keywords Malaysia, Systems engineering, Internet, Software tools, Optimization techniques Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction In the early days of computing, information systems (IS) were developed without the use of explicit systems development methodologies (SDM). The usual approach taken was heuristic with IS developer relying heavily on previous experiences and with little or no attention paid to the needs of the users (Walters et al., 1994). In the majority of the situation, IS were often finished behind schedule, over budget, in need of much maintenance – a situation termed as “software crisis,”, i.e. systems were not developed on time, within budget, nor of good quality (Fitzgerald, 1996). These problems have led to the development of SDMs with the aim of making effort to be systematic, as well as prescribing the panacea for the software crisis. Avison and Fitzgerald (1995) defined SDM as: [. . .] a collection of procedures, techniques, tools, and documentation aids which will help the IS developers in their effort to implement a new IS. A methodology will consist of phases, themselves consisting of sub-phases, which will guide the systems developers in their choice
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of techniques that might be appropriate at each stage of the project and also help them plan, manage, control and evaluate IS projects.
Recently, there exist literally hundreds (Avison and Fitzgerald, 1995), if not thousands ( Jayaratna, 1994) of SDM. Some of the well-publicized SDM like information engineering, structured systems analysis and design methods (SSADM), the structured approach, soft systems methods (SSM), multiview, dynamic systems development methods are commercially available and the proponents claims that IS built with their SDMs reduce complexity, facilitate project management and control, and produce high-quality systems that require less maintenance efforts (Fitzgerald et al., 2002). However, with the arrival of internet and WWW, IS using web-technology as a platform, i.e. by internet, intranet or extranet are now prevalent almost everywhere and this presents new challenges that are not normally encountered with the development of “traditional” IS (Russo and Graham, 1999; Lyytinen et al., 1998). As a result of this, new SDMs exclusively meant for web-based applications have emerged promising and assuring sound development process. Examples of these new SDMs are scenario-based object oriented hypermedia design methodology, web site design methodology (WSDM), relationship navigational analysis, MacWeb approach, hypermedia flexible process modeling, OO/pattern approach, and Lowe-Hall’s engineering approach (Koch, 1999). While research into the use and effectiveness of SDMs for more traditional IS has been enormously reported in the IS literature, little is known about the use of SDMs for developing web-based applications. Against this background, an exploratory research study was conducted to investigate the use and perceived benefits of these SDMs. Specifically, the study seeks to answer the following research questions: RQ1. What is the status of utilizations of SDM, techniques and tools Malaysian organizations? RQ2. How is SDM used in practice? RQ3. What are the perceived benefits of utilizing SDM? RQ4. What are problems faced in adopting SDM? 2. Literature review Initially, the internet and the WWW were seen as a means of communicating and sharing information across a widely dispersed audience (Fitzgerald et al., 2002). As the use of the web moved from the static display of information (such as an on-line brochures) to dynamic information provision and to real-time interactive applications, the design of web-based applications presents challenges and opportunities that are not normally encountered in conventional systems development (Russo and Graham, 1999; Lyytinen et al., 1998). Coda et al. (1998) described: The Web infrastructure is going beyond the mere distribution of information and services towards the deployment of a platform for generic distributed applications in a world-wide setting. This promising scenario is endangered by the weakness of the current methodologies that support the development of web-based applications.
Shirley et al. (1999) indicated that as experience with web-based applications increase, it is of interest to reflect on the SDMs by which they are constructed and questions
of interest include; the extent to which SDMs with more traditional systems can be applied or adapted, and the extent to which new and different SDMs must be found. The literature on the IS development and SDMs usage seems to agree that development of web-based applications is different from development of “traditional” IS (Paynter and Pearson, 1998; Carstensen and Vogelsang, 2001) Some authors (Balasubramaniam and Bashian, 1998) explained the differences in terms of speed of change in the technological basis, i.e. the accelerating pace of continuous evolvement of tools and features of web-technology is far too extreme and thus have lured people away from recognizing the need for a systematic design approach. Russo (2000) argued the differences in terms of the purpose and audience for which they are developed, i.e.: . many web-based applications are created simply to have a presence on the web rather than to replace any existing traditional information systems or to provide new functionality; and . the users of web-based applications are likely to be outside of the organizations and often cannot be identified in advance, thus it becomes more difficult to solicit the views of users when determining the information requirements. Other differences are in the communication technology (internet, intranet and extranet), the requirement for multi-platform accessibility, and the non-sequential nature of the site content due to a reliance on hypertext links to other web document (Russo, 2000). Isakowitz et al. (1995) believed that the differences between web-based applications and traditional IS introduce managerial and technical challenges and require new approaches to design and development. Because of the aforementioned differences, web-based applications development processes are poorly understood and the poverty of concepts currently underpinning web-based applications development practice is cause for concern (Lang, 2001). The use and effectiveness of SDMs for traditional IS development has been the focus of much research over a long period of time. Research on use of SDMs for traditional IS reported by the literature were from Jenkins et al. (1984), Burkhard (1990), Erlank et al. (1991), Palvia and Nosek (1993), Selamat et al. (1994), Rupnik-Miklic and Zupancic (1995), Hardy et al. (1995), Chatzouglou and Macaullay (1996), Eva and Guilford (1996), Russo et al. (1996), Fitzgerald (1998), Iivari and Maansaari (1998), Poo and Cheung (1998), Rahim et al. (1998), Huisman and Iivari (2003, 2006), Huisman (2004) and Masrek et al. (2003). The literature of IS revealed that there were very few reported research that address the use and evaluation of the effectiveness of SDMs for web-based applications. Previous studies that addressed on SDM usage for web-based applications were from Carstensen and Vogelsang (2001), Paynter and Pearson (1998) and Barry and Lang (2001). Paynter and Pearson (1998) conducted a case study to investigate in the context of the organizations how various web-based applications are developed and the reasons why particular strategy was used. The study found that organizations take a structured problem solving approach rather than adopting SDMs specifically designed for WWW. Carstensen and Vogelsang (2001) study focused on roles, competencies, communication structures, use of tools and techniques in a large project designing and implementing a large web site in a web-development company. The findings revealed that existing modeling and communication tools introduced severe problems and that the pace of the introduction of new tools and features causes development and
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management problems. Barry and Lang (2001) investigated the top 1,000 companies in general industry and 100 Irish companies in multimedia industry to identify the current practice of multimedia and web techniques. Results of the study showed that there is no uniform approach so IS development and that there is little evidence that models of multimedia and web that are suggested in the literature that being used in practice. Although, these studies provide important information concerning the deployment of SDMs for web-based applications, they only highlight the experiences of the related countries. In contrast, none has been reported on how SDMs for web-based applications are actually being practiced in Malaysia. 3. Research approach This study adopt a survey research approach to investigate the situation of SDM usage for developing web-based applications in organization in Malaysia. Using a questionnaire as the research instrument, a total of 200 questionnaires was sent to organizations that are operating in the Klang Valley, in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. The questionnaire was structured into several sections. The first section captures information on organization background which include business nature, organizational size, existence of IT departmenet and its maturity, number of employee working the IS department. Second part of the questionnaire capture information about SDM usage which covers commercial SDM used, techniques, tools, programming languages, and type of web-based applications being developed. The last part of the questionare captures information on the perceived benefits for adopting SDM and the problems encountered in using them. The development of the questionnaire was based on the work of Huisman (2000) and Barry and Lang (2001). A total of 66 organizations returned the questionnare giving a response rate of 33.3 percent. 4. Findings Table I illustrates the demographic profiles of the participating organizations. Government organizations which include universities dominated the list with 43.9 percent followed by software companies and other (business types) with 19.7 and 10.6 percent, respectively. About 9.1 percent of the respondents were from the service and communication industries, while 6.1 percent were from the construction/manufacturing/distribution and wholesale/retail trade industries. Financial/insurance/real estate contribute 4.5 percent to the entire respondents. In terms of the number of staffs, the findings showed that majority of the responding organizations (i.e. 56.1 percent) have more than 300 employees working in their organizations. Considering that majority of the responding organizations was from the public sector, this figure could be justified. With regard to the maturity of their IS department, most responding organizations responded that their IS department has existed more than 15 years. Finally, the demographic profiles also showed that 30.3 percent of the responding organizations have more than 50 staffs working in their IS department. Based on the 66 responses, a total of 51 organizations or 77 percent reported the use of SDM for developing their web-based applications. A total of 15 indicated that there was no specific systems development methodolgy being pratices in their organizations. Table II presents the list of SDM that were adopted (or adapted). Topping the list is the in-house method (hybrid) with 32 responses or 48.48 percent, followed by rapid
Business nature Government/public sector/education Consultants/software house Others Service/communications Construction/manufacturing/distribution Wholesale/retail trade Finance/insurance/real estate No. of entire staffs Greater than 300 11-50 51-100 101-200 1-10 201-300 IS deptartment maturity (in years) 1-2 3-5 6-8 9-11 12-15 .15 No. of staffs in IS department 1-5 6-10 11-20 21-30 31-50 Greater than 50
N ¼ 66
Percent
29 13 7 6 4 4 3
43.9 19.7 10.6 9.1 6.1 6.1 4.5
37 12 5 5 4 3
56.1 18.2 7.6 7.6 6.1 4.5
4 11 12 10 9 20
4.5 16.7 18.2 15.2 13.6 30.3
11 9 11 6 9 20
16.7 13.6 16.7 9.1 13.6 30.3
application development and unified modelling languages with 36.36 and 34.85 percent responses, respectively. Previous studies showed that most SDM adopters customized the SDM to fulfill their unique organizational requirements. In this study, we are also interested to investigate the situation. To meet this objective, we prepare a list of options indicating SDM practice based on the work of Huisman and Iivari (2003) and Masrek et al. (2003). As we have expected, SDM adapted on project-by-project basis is rated highest with 37.9 percent response. About 33.3 percent organizations responded that their SDM is a general guideline for all project while the remaining 19 percent responded that their SDM are a standard which is followed rigorously for all projects (Table III). Carstensen and Vogelsang (2001) discovered in their studies that hypermedia developers were still adopting the classical techniques that were suited to develop traditional IS. To this effect, we noticed that the trend was also similar in our sample of study. Data flow diagram (59 percent), flowcharting (57 percent), prototyping (50 percent) and entity relationship diagram (48 percent) are the top mostly used techniques by the participating organizations (Table IV). In this study, we also investigate the use of development tools in web-based applications. The findings revealed that the most widely used tools are image editing tools
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Table I. Demographic profiles of participating organizations
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Table II. SDM usage
SDM In-house methodology/hybrid Rapid application development (RAD) UML Web site design method (WSDM) SSADM Object oriented hypermedia design method (OO-HDM) Hypermedia design method (HDM) SSM OMT Yourdon/STRADIS/equivalent structured methodology Booch LBMS system development method Jackson systems development Others Merise
SDM in practice Table III. SDM practice
Adapted on project-by-project basis A general guideline for all project A standard which is followed rigorously for all projects
Techniques used
Table IV. Techniques usage
Data flow diagrams (DFD) Flowcharting Prototyping Entity relationship diagrams (ERD) Project management Storyboarding Object-oriented techniques Menu maps Joint application design (JAD) Relationship management data – model (RMDM) diagram Use case diagrams Class diagrams Movie authoring and design (MAD) Dialogue charts Functional decomposition diagrams (FDD) State transition diagrams (STD) Microcosm/MAVIS
N ¼ 66
Percent
32 24 23 22 18 12 10 9 8 6 6 6 5 3 1
48.48 36.36 34.85 26.8 27.27 14.6 12.2 13.64 12.12 9.09 9.09 9.09 7.58 4.55 1.52
N ¼ 66
Percent
25 22 19
37.9 33.3 28.8
N ¼ 66
Percent
39 38 33 32 28 27 25 22 14 12 12 8 7 6 4 3 1
59.09 57.58 50.00 48.48 42.42 40.91 37.88 33.33 21.21 18.18 18.18 12.12 10.61 9.09 6.06 4.55 1.52
(50 percent), multimedia authoring tools (50 percent), presentation graphics software (40.91 percent), script writing software (33.33 percent), personal home graphics software (33.33 percent) and storyboard design software (31.82 percent). Other tools are less popular as they are used by less than 30 percent of the responding organizations (Table V).
Tools used Image editing tools Multimedia authoring tools Presentation graphics software Script writing software Personal/home graphics software Storyboard design software Sound editing programs 3D modelling software Desktop video/movie software Optical character recognition (OCR) software Instructional design tools Others
N ¼ 66
Percent
33 33 27 22 22 21 18 16 16 14 11 1
50 50 40.91 33.33 33.33 31.82 27.27 24.24 24.24 21.21 16.67 1.52
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Table V. Tools for web-based applications development
Questions to measure the perceived benefits of using SDM were using Likert scale items from 1 – totally agree and 5 – totally disagree. Respondents were required to indicate the extent to which they agree on how their SDMs had benefited them in IS development projects. A total of ten items based on the Barry and Lang (2001) were used to measure perceived benefits. “Allows better project control” has been rated the highest ranking with of 4.21, followed by “facilitates communication among developers” and “ensures that systems meet user needs better” with mean of 4.14 and 4.11. “Increases visibility of systems development process,” “Improves the quality of the systems developed,” and “Helps ensure that documentation is produced” each recorded a mean value of 4.09. Overall, the average mean for all-items is 3.98. Hence, it can be safely concluded that respondents were generally agreed that the use of SDM in IS development provides great benefits to them. Clearly, this finding has provided some empirical evidence with regard to SDM virtues and benefits as claimed by SDM proponents (Table VI). SDM practitioners were also required to indicate the problems that they faced while using the SDM in practice. About 46.97 percent indicated that SDM was complex, 33.33 percent responded that SDM was expensive, 31.82 percent reported that SDM was difficult to apply, 28.79 percent indicated that SDM was difficult to understand. Other problems that were picked include high level of detail (16 percent), not widely known (19.7 percent), too narrow (18.18 percent) obsolesces and broadness (9.09 percent) (Table VII). Benefits of SDM Allows better project control Facilitates communication among developers Ensures that systems meet user needs better Increases visibility of systems development process Improves the quality of the systems developed Helps ensure that documentation is produced Facilitates interchangeability of developers among projects Increases likelihood that systems will be delivered on time Reduces maintenance of systems Increases likelihood that systems will be delivered within budget Average
Mean 4.21 4.14 4.11 4.09 4.09 4.09 3.98 3.74 3.74 3.61 3.98
Table VI. Perceived benefits of SDM usage for web-based applications development
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5. Discussion Wynekop and Russo (1995) reported that organizations adopting SDM tended to modify them to create their own in-house SDM. Study by Huisman and Iivari (2003) also supported this finding when it was found that a huge number of respondents indicated the so-called in-house method adapted from some form of commercial method. Our findings have indicated similar trend. Most of the responding organizations indicated the use of and in-house development methodology in their systems development projects. With regard to commercial SDM usage, rapid application development, UML and SSADM were among the most widely used. Rapid application development is a fast method which heavily employs the use of prototyping. Owing to its strength that focus on fast delivery and prototyping, many organizations finds it very practical and effective in their IS development project. The use of prototyping could ensure better participation by user as well as better fulfilling their requirements. Unified modeling language is an object-oriented based methodology. Many universities offering IS development courses have started using this methodology in the curriculum. One of its greatest strength it is customized to suit with the object-oriented programming languages such as Cþþ. SSADM is not so alien to many of IS developers working in Malaysian government sector. This is because the government has promoted and enforced its usage in all government IS projects. As we have seen from the findings of this study that the majority of our respondents are from the government sector, it is therefore not surprising that this method is rated high by our respondents. Previous studies on SDM usage (Wynekop and Russo (1995); Huisman and Iivari, 2000; Masrek et al., 2003) indicated that SDM were mostly adapted on project-by-project basis. Clearly, the finding of this research is also consistent and supports their claims. To best explain this situation, Fitzgerald et al. (2002) compiled a list of research on SDM deployment and synthesize a conceptual framework that diagrammatically explain the use of SDM in practice by developers. To this effect, we argue that our findings partially support and verify their model to some extent. We cannot claim full support as the model is more relevant and appropriate for qualitative study on a project basis. The finding of the study has indicated that the use of SDM for web-based applications among Malaysian developers is still very low. The situation can be best explained by the fact that SDM for web-based applications are relatively still very new in the IS field and developers are unaware of their existence. Furthermore, standard textbooks that discuss on these topics are still very scarce and the only source of Problems with SDM
Table VII. Problems faced in adopting SDM for web-based applications development
Complexity Cost Difficulty in use Difficulty in understanding High level of detail Not widely known Too narrow/specific Obsolescence Broadness/inclusiveness Others
N ¼ 66
Percent
31 22 21 19 16 13 12 6 6 2
46.97 33.33 31.82 28.79 24.24 19.7 18.18 9.09 9.09 3.03
information is the internet or scholarly academic journal. Hence, it will require the effort of the developers to seek and find this information. Other possible explanation could be the formal training that the developers received. Much of the knowledge on SDM is acquired during their university study when hypermedia application was still at their infancy and hence no formal exposure was given with regard to SDM for web-based applications. Studies by Barry and Lang (2001) and Lang (2001) discovered that most hypermedia developers adopt those techniques that are more suited in the development of traditional IS. Our findings also indicate the similar trend. This situation could be possibly explained by the fact that that these developers are well-versed and conversant with the use of these techniques as they have received formal training and exposure especially during their degree pursuit in the university. The existence of many university standard textbooks that discuss on more traditional techniques provide easy self-learning and self-reference to these developers. Furthermore, the use of common techniques that are well understood facilitate communication in situation where the project is large and involve many developers. However, this finding has sparked some curiosity to us as to how these traditional techniques are being modified to fulfill the complex requirement of the hypermedia application and to ensure understanding among project participants (i.e. developers). To help us explain the situation, we conducted post-interview study to selected developers whom we have easy access to. Some of the important remark that we obtained from one interviewee are quoted as: We modified the data flow diagram (technique) that only we in this project can understand [. . .] the symbols that we used are our own symbols that we created them off-hand [. . .] we have to do it because the original symbols are insufficient to cater our needs [. . .] but these are only symbols [. . .] not fixed (permanent) [. . .] sometimes we changed as we like [. . .] but the fundamental symbols are still there [. . .] of course, if others (new developer) were to join our group they must first learn our symbol or otherwise they can never understand what our project is all about.
The comments that we obtained from the interview has provided some impetus of better understanding on how more traditional techniques are employed by developers to develop web-based applications in practice. The interviewee also admitted that their web-based applications are not properly documented and hence troubling them should their organization intend to acquire the ISO-certification. Unlike the traditional information system, web-based applications are complex combination of text, images, audio and video. The development of each and every of this component would require special tool or software. The findings of this study indicated that the top most widely used tools are image editing tools, multimedia authoring tools, presentation graphics software, script writing software, personal home graphics software and storyboard design software. This finding revealed that most of the web-based applications that are being developed are image or graphic-intensive. This study has revealed that SDM adopters are satisfactorily agreed that utilizing SDM in their projects provides the promised benefits. Thins finding is consistent with Barry and Lang (2001) and Lang (2001). Majority of the respondents indicated that the use of SDM allows better control. The reason could be that 16 of the responding organizations stated that their SDM is a standard that must be followed strictly.
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Many SDM proponents argued that when SDM are strictly followed, systems practitioners can easily keep track and monitor project progress. Previous studies on SDM usage has revealed that adopters of SDM faced many difficulties in applying SDM in project development. Many reported that its usage is too rigid and inflexible. Furthermore, many developers perceived that adopting SDM in project development would be an extra burden to their heap of work task. Our findings have also discovered similar results. 6. Conclusion The study has clearly provides a better understanding of the SDM deployment in Malaysia. The findings of the research provide documented evidence and should be of interest to practitioner community and academician. At the firm or departmental level, organization would now have better comprehension about the potential benefits that SDM can offer to their systems development effort. Also, they can equip their knowledge on the prospective constraints and limitations should they decide to adopt SDM for web-based applications. Further, practitioner community can also enhance their knowledge on how SDM for web-based applications are being applied in practice. This research has also investigated the use of SDM, techniques and tools in web-based applications development. The accumulated information regarding the deployment of techniques, tools and programming languages provide empirical evidence of practitioners’ choice and preferences in the context of Malaysian scenario. Prospective graduates as well as academician should find this information beneficial as it would help them identify critical skills that are highly demanded by employers in the job market. The development of IS employing web-related technologies has and will continue leapfrogging not only in Malaysia, but also in the other parts of the world. In Malaysia, this situation is manifested by the aggressive effort by the government in promoting the use of multimedia in all walks of life especially after the launching of its very-own multimedia super corridor. As the results of this, Malaysians are now witnessing that e-commerce, e-banking and other e-related services are mushrooming progressively in the country. While this development is impressive and inspiring, the situation in the academia is somehow not reflecting this demand. The curriculum and syllabus on systems development courses are already outdated, i.e. adopting the classical systems development life cycle methodology. Very few textbooks are written to deal with the newly developed area like SDM for web-based applications. Hence, there is an urgent and dire need for the academia to change their old-mind setting and to take the brave and courageous step by devising their curriculum and penning books on SDM for web-based applications that can be used as standard reference in their cause of teaching. This study is not without limitation and deficiencies. First and foremost is the choice of method in data collection. The accuracy of data and information provided by respondents is based on individual perception representing the organizations. More accurate information could be obtained should the study employ multiple-response, i.e. having more than one respondent for every organization. Further, this study had collected data based on the overall IS practice of the organizations. Previous studies had indicated that the use any development methodologies were not similar across the board. Every IS project is unique it its own. Future study on the deployment of SDM
for web-based should consider adopting the case study approach as it would provide rich and insightful information regarding SDM. As opposed to cross-sectional, longitudinal data collection based on exclusive IS project would better explain the utilization of SDM by IS developers.
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