Towards an information driven software development life cycle

Abstract

Although software engineering has matured greatly over the years, a large number of ICT projects continue to fail. Studies continue to identify non-technical issues such as poor communication, shifting requirements and poor executive involvement as the main causes of these failures. This paper identifies such well known causes and poses the question as to why currently available software development life cycles fall short of dealing with them. Drawing on results from a research exercise carried out by the authors, a link is made between the quality of information used throughout the development life cycle and the quality of the resultant product. Consequently, it is proposed that organisations knowingly or unknowingly maintain a knowledge context and the quality of this knowledge context has direct impact on product quality. Furthermore, it is proposed that a software development life cycle be developed in which participants do not focus explicitly on the traditional phases of software development. Rather, a conscious decision is made to focus instead on information which is being created, manipulated and utilised throughout the lifetime of a product. If a link can be established between the quality of the knowledge context and the quality of a finished product, then it is sound to argue that if one nurtures a high quality knowledge context, a high- quality product will naturally follow.