Approaches to Appreciate Information Systems Methodologies: A Soft Systems Survey

A vast number of different methodologies for developing computer-based information systems are available. They form a motley spectrum in the sense that they apply to different parts of the development process and to different modes of thinking and acting. At a meta-level relative to methodologies is the discipline that deals with these differences and the applicability of methodologies in different situations. It encompasses theories, ideas and, especially, appreciation approaches, i.e. approaches to understand, evaluate and compare methodologies. This article is a survey of the appreciation approaches found in the literature. The survey has been conducted as a soft systems enquiry. The appreciation approaches are understood and partly evaluated by mapping them unto a soft systems model that explicate how to answer the fundamental question of: Which methodologies in which situations? It is argued that the appreciation approaches found are static and general in the sense that the fundamental question is assessed detached from a particular situation. Furthermore, it is argued on the basis of Schon's theory on reflection-inaction and Checkland's soft systems thinking that we need appreciation approaches that facilitate dynamic and situational thinking about the use of methodologies. A methodology is not the same as practice (Mathiassen 1981, Andersen et al. 1990). Working practice is what is actually done in a situation in information systems development. It is the concrete actions taken. In contrast, a methodology is an abstraction, i.e. an intellectual construct prescribing actions to be taken. An information systems methodology is taken to be a coherent set of guidelines. The guidelines prescribe actions both in terms of what to do and in terms of how to do it. The elements of 'how' are often refered to as techniques, that is precise concrete actions to be taken to achieve an end. Techniques are closely related to tools, models, and other kinds of means. Methodologies are basically abstract ideas about actions. Only when a methodology is interpreted and used can it influence the working practice of the actors seeking to apply it. There is a wide variety of methodologies in information systems development. DeMarco (1979) has described a methodology (Structured Analysis/Structured Design) and it has later been elaborated on by Yourdon & Constantine (1979) and Yourdon (1982). It is probably the most well-known and'widely used methodology. Using DeMarco's methodology information systems development is done by describing the existing and future information system in terms of data-processes,-items, and-flow. Jackson's (1983) …