Blended Methodologies: More than the sum of their parts?

In each of the preceding sessions, we have started from a particular philosophical viewpoint and asked, "What sort of methodologies might fit here"? We have seen in the associated article that, in practice, methodologies are very seldom "philosophically pure" and, in addition, many people do not actually follow the methodology in its entirety. This session starts from a different premise and asks, "If different approaches are applicable in different circumstances, what should we choose?"

A summary

We will discuss two ways to answer this question in this session: contingency approaches and blended approaches.

• Contingency approaches take a (literally) "ad hoc" approach - there is no single best methodology, so the selection of a methodology must depend on the characteristics of the project. The argument here is that a specific tool is designed to solve a specific type of problem and that an attempt to find a "one size fits all" solution will inevitably prove sub-optimal.

• Blended approaches attempt to combine the best aspects of different methodologies, possibly applying certain aspects of particular methodologies at the different stages of a single project. The argument here is that by combining several methodologies we can exploit the strengths and weaknesses of each of the original methodologies to end up with something that is "greater than the sum of its parts".

Pros and cons

Pros

Probably the strongest argument for these approaches is that they are more in tune with the reality of systems development. They offer the flexibility to adapt the method to suit the circumstances of a particular situation and should provide the advantages of a pre-defined structure without excessive rigidity. Thus, it is argued that these approaches could prove to be both creative and cost effective.

Cons

The downside of these approaches is that, with no integrating philosophy, these approaches risk degenerating into an inefficient and idiosyncratic approach that produces systems that are difficult to modify, understand or maintain. This approach also carries long-term risks, the selection of the 'appropriate' techniques for any situation relies heavily on the skill and experience of the analyst while the lack of a 'standardized' approach will, almost certainly lead to difficulty when training new analysts.

Reading

Books

• See any of the books from the SDM books section

Articles

• Chapters 20 and 25 in D. Avison and G Fitzgerald, Information Systems Development: Methodologies, Techniques and Tools (3rd Edition), McGraw-Hill Publishing, 2002
• Jayaratna, N. Understanding and Evaluating Methodologies - NIMSAD A Systemic Framework, McGraw-Hill, Maidenhead, 1994.
• Avison , D. E. MERISE: A European methodology for developing information systems. European Journal of Information Systems. Vol 1, 1991.
• Avison, D. E. and Wood-Harper, A. T. Multiview: An Exploration in Information Systems Development, McGraw-Hill, Maidenhead, 1990.
• Wood-Harper, A.T., Antill, L. and Avison, D.E. Information Systems Definition: The Multiview Approach, Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, 1985.

On-line Articles

• Improving Access of the Commercial Software Developer to Formal Methods: Integrating MERISE with Z. Dunckley, L. and Smith, A. (1996) in Methods Integration: Proceedings of the Methods Integration Workshop, Antony Bryant and Lesley Semmens (Eds), pub Springer / BCS
  This paper investigates the applicability of Z to MERISE, the French structured methodology, recommending the adoption of a formal link between the two. We seek to show how combination with structured methods can improve the accessibility of formal methods and processes can be enhanced, enabling better communication through participative structures.

• Towards a Systematic Object-Oriented transformation of a MERISE Analysis Borne, I. Romanczuk, A and Stefani, F. (1998) 2nd Euromicro Conference on Software Maintenance and Reengineering (CSMR'98), pp 213 - 217.
  Within the Framework of a project whose main goal is to design a reengineering platform for legacy systems, we propose a rule-based approach for a systematic object-oriented transformation of a MERISE analysis.

• A further exploration into information systems development: the evolution of Multiview 2 Avison, D.E. Wood-Harper, A.T. Vidgen, R.T. and Wood J.R.G (1998) Information Technology and People, Volume 11, Number 2, February 1998, pp. 124-139
  Multiview was defined in 1985, it has soft and hard aspects and, as a contingency approach, is not prescriptive but adapted to the particular situation in the organization. Observations and reflections on Multiview in action over the last ten years form the basis for a new definition of Multiview.

Some practical examples

• The use of systems development methodologies in practice: a field study. Fitzgerald, B. (1997). Information Systems Journal, 7(3), pp 201-212.
  This paper reports on a field study of experienced systems developers which found that developers omit certain aspects of methodologies not from a position of ignorance, but from the more pragmatic basis that certain aspects are not relevant to the development environment they face. It suggests that there is a wide difference between the formalized sequence of steps and stages prescribed by a methodology and the methodology-in-action uniquely enacted for a particular development project.

• The fiction of methodological development: a field study of information systems development. Nandhakumar, J. and Avison, D. E. (1999). Information Technology and People, 12(2), pp. 176 - 191.
  This paper presents the findings of a detailed study of the process of information systems development in a large organization. The findings indicate that the development process is characterized by improvisation, opportunism, interruption and negotiation as much as by regularity, progress milestones, planning and management control.

Web pages

• Critical realism and information systems research: why bother with philosophy? from the Journal "Information Research"
• Multimethodology From Wikipedia (.en)
• Merise From Wikipedia (.fr)

Lecture notes

The notes for this session are available as a presentation (in pdf format) - lecture notes for session 8