Selecting a Project 's Methodology

0 7 4 0 7 4 5 9 / 0 0 / $ 1 0 . 0 0 © 2 0 0 0 I E E E The punch line is that having multiple methodologies is appropriate and necessary. We can differentiate them according to staff size and system criticality (more dimensions exist, but these two serve well initially). For any point in the size–criticality space, methodology designers select a scope of concerns, prioritizing some quality of the project. Based on these choices, the project team selects how light or heavy a methodology they want for their project. (See the “Vocabulary” sidebar for a discussion of methodology weight and other pertinent terms.) To help software development teams handle the selection, I describe several principles that underlie methodology design. I have successfully used these principles on several software development projects, one of which I describe in some detail in this article.