The fit between project characteristics and application development methodologies: A contingency approach

Abstract

This study proposes and tests a contingency approach that identifies the most appropriate application development methodology for a given project based on three dimensions: project uncertainty, project complexity, and user's system experience. This study focuses on the system development life cycle methodology (SDLC), prototyping at three levels, and end-user development (EUD) as potential application development methodologies. It measures user satisfaction and system utilization to examine the effect of the match between the prescribed methodology and the methodology actually used. A field survey was conducted using a sample of 371 "matched pair" responses from system developers and users who independently assessed the contingency factors and success measures (except in the case of EUD). The two major hypotheses were supported, demonstrating that user satisfaction and system utilization were significantly higher for those who used the methodology prescribed for their situation than those who did not were. The study demonstrates that considering situational factors in choosing a system development methodology is likely to lead to higher user satisfaction and system utilization.