The objective of this research is to investigate the critical factors that project managers must consider when choosing a software development methodology for a project. A survey of project managers was conducted to identify the critical factors needed to select a software development methodology.
INTRODUCTION
- Background to the Study
- Statement of the Problem
- Aim, Objectives and Research Questions of the study
- Aim of the Study
- Objectives of the Study
- Research Questions
- Significance of the proposed study
- Delimitations of the study
- Limitations of the study
- Operational Definitions
- The research layout
- Summary
This research includes an analysis and design of a rule-based expert system that replicates the reasoning of an expert responsible for selecting a software development methodology. The purpose of this study was to investigate the architecture of rule-based expert systems in order to develop an unconstrained rule-based expert system.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
- Structure of an expert system
- Expert-Systems By De Kock (2003)
- Rule-Based Expert System
- Human and Rules Following
It links the rules given in the knowledge base with the facts provided in the database. The fuzzy implementation uses fuzzy production rules that use logic sets to characterize the variables and terms used in the propositions of rules, they are of the form IF antecedent THEN consequent, where the antecedent is of the form "x is Z" is the truth value of these statements are determined by the degree of correspondence between the linguistic variable "x" and the linguistic term "Z".
Software Process Models
- Components of Systems Development Methodology
- The use and effectiveness of SDMs in organizations
- The advantages and benefits of systems development methodologies
- Better end-product
- Better development
- Standardizing processes and procedures
- Supporting tool
- Knowledge and education
- Communication
- Systematic guide
- Benefit of using SDMs
Consequently, the adoption of systems development methodologies by practitioners has been somewhat slow (Laudon, 2000). In addition, systems development methodologies enable feasible communication between all stakeholders (Futrel et al Mihailescu & Mihailescu, 2009:5).
Disadvantages and criticisms of systems development methodologies
- Time-consuming during development
- Complex development
- Need for method tailoring
- Not widely practised
- Lack of the human factor
- Lack of full control
In addition, the research of Yahya et al. 2002:15) found the following advantages in implementing information systems development projects in applying methodologies. One of the other reasons for the failure was that practitioners do not realize the benefits and needs of system development methodologies; therefore they are out of shape with the complexity of the developmental situations (Fitzgerald et al., 2002:3).
Software development methodologies
- The Waterfall
- Prototyping
- The Incremental
- The Spiral
- Rapid Application Development (RAD)
Can be used to realistically model important aspects of a system during each phase of the traditional life cycle (Huffaker, 1986). Moderate control is maintained over the life of the project through the use of written documentation and the formal review and approval/signoff by the user and information technology management at designated major milestones. Highly interactive applications where the data for the project already exists (in whole or in part), and the project largely involves analysis or reporting of the data.
Data for the project already exists (in whole or in part) and the project largely involves analysis or reporting of the data. Computationally complex systems, requiring complex and voluminous data to be analysed, designed and created within the scope of the project.
Factors Influencing Choice of An Adequate Software Development Methodology
- Geambasu Additional Factors
It is very difficult to estimate the effort required to develop the whole system, because not all requirements are known at the beginning of the project. The methodology enables users to interact with variants of the system from an early stage through the use of prototypes. The high complexity of the methodology requires the use of a large number of resources, including financial ones.
The development team is small which implies low cost of human resources. g) Length of the delivery time of the final system. Rational unified process: The high complexity of the methodology requires the use of a large number of human resources.
Rules for SDM selection
XP should be used if the system complexity is medium or low. i) Communication between customers and developers. The customers provide the developers with information about the requirements of the future system and, if necessary, provide them with feedback on certain outcomes of the development process, but they are not actively involved in the entire software development process. The customers participate in working sessions with the developers and are actively involved in the process of defining requirements, as well as evaluating and validating the prototypes and final software.
This means that a representative of future users of the system must be available throughout development to answer questions from the development team. j) Size of the development team. If each methodology is represented as an object, then its list of situations in which it is desirable to define a state can be prepared as a policy, which the inference engine will use as a reference to compare the user's inputs of project properties with the available data, and then correctly decide which the model better fits the project under consideration.
Expert systems for automaton of Methodology process
- Software Development Methodologies Expert System
- Al Ahmar Software Development Methodologies Expert system
- Short coming of Zaeid and Al Ahmar prototype models
- Common features in the reviewed systems
- Previous similar studies
If a particular SDM has at least one value of 0.0 in any selected criteria, it is not displayed. Other main user interface screens and functions will be described in the following sample consultation: Consider a software project characterized primarily by the following key challenges: It is a complex software system with unclear user requirements and limited project time (ie, a tight schedule). Limited selection criteria – There are many criteria that can be used to select a methodology, so it is not appropriate to limit a developer to just six.
9 It is suggested that the main purpose of SDMs is to advance human capabilities that allow human agents to perform valuable functions. Middleton and McCollum Organizational culture has been identified as an influencing factor. successful adoption of an agile method.
Hardware platforms
13 The study suggests that effective matching of SDMs to an application domain leverages knowledge management outcomes by influencing the effectiveness of knowledge-work processes in a systems development project. 15 The study found that an organization is probably unwise to use highly prescriptive SDMs to improve its software development performance. 14 The results have indicated that the organization uses most of an internal development SDM in their system development projects.
These applications do not rely on the web, but on computer applications (Computer Basics: Understanding Applications, 2014). The researcher chose a mobile platform to run his proposed SDMES because this platform is more likely to achieve the objectives of this research than the other platforms.
Software platforms
- Development Platform tools
- Android software development kit (SDK)
- Adobe Air
- Native Development Kit (NDK)
- Titanium Mobile software development kit
The Android SDK is a development package that provides a developer with a set of application programming interface (API) libraries and developer tools needed to build, test, and debug applications. The Titanium SDK enables developers to create quality native, mobile web, or rich hybrid applications that can run on all platforms from a single codebase using JavaScript. It is an open source software development kit with many community developers contributing continuously to its improvement ("Titanium SDK", 2014).
One would choose to use this software development kit because traditional approaches use native development tools and languages for each mobile operating system. If you want to easily develop a hybrid application, it would be wise to use the Titanium software development kit.
The Unbounded Rule-based expert system
After the gaps have been identified to overcome the shortcomings of the prototypes described in Section 2.6, the proposed URB-RS will have a predefined knowledge base, but any manager will be able to modify the knowledge base by adapting the SDM models to their requirements or by adding new ones. SDMs to the knowledge base and the URB-ES allows the user to select the criteria they want to use without restriction. It will be a native application, allowing even those without good internet access to use it. This is an advantage because it guarantees mobility; users do not need wifi or data to use the application.
Summary
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
- Introduction
- Research design
- Population of the study and Target population
- Data Sources and Data Collection Techniques
- Data analysis
- Development of the Prototype
- Ethical considerations
- Permission to conduct the study
- Informed consent
- Voluntary participation
- Confidentiality and Privacy
- Protection of participants from any harm
- Summary
The researcher observed that the participants made decisions about which method to choose in the initial phase of the software development project. After getting the ethical approval from the ethics committee, the researcher started collecting data. Before the participants were engaged in the research study, the researcher had to ensure that participation was of their own free will.
They were also informed that the information they provided would only be accessed by the researcher and the supervisors. The researcher ensured that no physical, psychological or emotional harm would occur to the participants.
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
- Introduction
- Demographic Profile
- Gender
- Age and Development experience
- Job description
- Qualification
- Business sector / Organization sector
- Descriptive Analysis
- Internal Consistency Reliability
- Dimension Reduction: Factor Analysis
- Rotated Component Matrix & Factor Re-Naming
- Regression Analysis
- Summary
The selection variable used was to group factors based on the responses of the 101 Project Managers involved in the study. The second group of factors consists of the following variables: Training Programs, Applicable Technologies, Simple Design and Application Domain. The third group of factors consisted of the following variables: time management, user-developer communication, intensive user participation, PM practices and conflicting requirements.
The adjusted R-squared value demonstrates that 87 percent of the variance in the dependent variable (choice of software development methodology) can be explained by the five independent variables (realizing realistic expectations, business value proposition, knowledge management and design architecture, project management best practices, and project). Enablers of Excellence). The analysis of variance in Table 4.10 provides the weights of the influence of the independent variables on the response variable.
DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF PROTOTYPE
- Introduction
- Requirements Engineering Process of URB-ES
- High Level Architecture of URB-ES
- Use case descriptions
- Architectural solution
- The Sequence Diagram
- Technical Implementation of the URB-ES
- Application
- Consultation process with the URB-ES
- Viewing the SDMs in URB-ES
- Testing
- URB-ES evaluation
- Summary
The use case describes the main process and interaction between the user and the URB-ES system. The user will run the URB-ES system and choose to consult, the URB-ES will display the selection criteria. URB-ES will recommend the Spiral Model followed by the Water Fall and then the Scrum model based on the nature of the project and the given requirements.
The URB-ES in Scenario 2 Figure 5.13 recommends Extreme Programming, followed by Reuse and then Scrum Model based on the nature of the program. The URB-ES in Scenario 3 Figure 5.14 recommends Reuse followed by scrum and then Scrum Model based on the nature of the program.
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
- Introduction
- Research Aim and Main Findings of the Study
- Summary of findings
- Investigate the Architecture of a Rule-Based Expert System
- Identify Factors that Influence the Choice of a Software Development Methodology
- Develop a Software Prototype of a Rule-Based Expert System
- Recommendations
- Limitations and future work
- Summary
The interpretation from the results of the regression model is that, if these factors are missing or not taken into account in the choice of a software development methodology, then their impact is negative, negatively affecting the software development process. This group of factors was baptized as Project Excellence Enablers, with the connotation that, when starting a software development process, the main factors related to the quality of the project should be considered ex ante. This problem raises issues related to the effectiveness of the PM process, so the focus of this project is on designing an unbounded rule-based software development architecture to improve PM practice.
Unbounded Rule-Based Expert Systems Architecture” for choosing the right software development methodology. Unbounded Rule-Based Expert Systems Architecture” as a basis for choosing the right software development methodology.
Questionnaires Survey Form
To what extent do you agree with the following statements as a valid description of the last information systems development project you worked on. 2 The project had a clearly defined system goal and objectives. 3 The project had a simple simple design. The general agreement on the goal and objectives of the project was 14. different user department or users had conflicting requirements.
1 To what extent does your organization/company currently use the following standard system development methods? 2 which of the above standard system development methods have been changed to suit the specific needs of your organization and how significant the changes have been.
Ethical clearance
Prof Reading
Unbounded Rule-Based Expert System(URB-ES) coding
