The use of System Development Methodologies in the Development of e‐Government Systems
Lesego Ditibane, Magda Huisman and Nehemiah Mavetera North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa lesego. ditibane @ nwu. ac. za magda. huisman @ nwu. ac. za nehemiah. mavetera @ nwu. ac. za
Abstract: E‐Government systems have made a breakthrough over the past decades with government departments now providing services online. The development of e‐Government systems in South Africa has raised major concerns when coming to the System Development Methodologies( SDMs) used. The professionals involved in the development of e‐ Government systems indicate that so far, there have hardly been any specific SDMs designed for the development of e‐ Government systems. This study discusses the use of SDMs in the development of e‐Government systems. It is believed that SDMs can help improve the quality of systems developed, reduce costs, and increase efficiency and effectiveness. Using qualitative methods, the study proposes a conceptual framework that matches required e‐Government systems characteristics and the different types of SDMs that can be used to develop such systems.
Keywords: e‐government, system development methodology, conceptual framework, Information, Communication and Technology, South Africa
1. Introduction
According to Al Ahmar( 2010) and Avison and Fitzgerald( 2003), SDMs are promoted as a means of improving the management and control of the software development process. They are also important for standardizing the development process and the final product by specifying activities to be done and techniques to be used in a proper and chronological manner.
To determine the use of SDMs in the development of e‐Government systems, this study addresses the following research objectives:
• to investigate the SDMs used in the development of e‐government systems.
• to identify the challenges and problems that are encountered by the developers of e‐government systems.
• to determine the suitable SDM’ s that addresses unique aspects of e‐government systems.
In order to address the above research objectives, a selection of SDMs and e‐Government systems are analyzed, their suitability to the study is justified; their common and unique characteristics as well as their challenges are described. The rest of the paper is as follows: Section 2 looks at the definitions given to SDM, Section 3 discusses different SDMs used in developing systems, and Section 4 gives an overview of e‐ government systems while Sections 5 and 6 addresses the research method used and the proposed framework respectively.
2. Definitions of SDM
For the purpose of this study, we defined SDM using Avison and Fitzgerald( 2006) and Huisman and Iivari( 2005) definitions, that a SDM is a collection of procedures, different approaches, tools and techniques, methods, process models, and documentation aids which can help system developers to implement new information systems. This definition will assist the researchers to measure the use of SDMs in the development of e‐Government systems by assessing the aspects involved. The next section discusses SDMs used in this study and it also provides a justification of these methodologies.
3. Brief overview and justification of the selected SDMs
In this study six most commonly used and recent SDMs were selected and discussed as follows:
a) Structured Analysis, Design, and Implementation of Information Systems( STRADIS) – is a process‐oriented SDM and it is suitable in the development of any systems designed for specific problem solving irrespective of the size and type of such systems. It is also relevant when there is a backlog of systems waiting to be developed and insufficient resources to devote to all the potential new systems.
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