Lean, Light, Adaptive, Agile and Appropriate Software Development: The Case for a Less Methodical Methodology

Abstract

Historically, the approach to software engineering has been based on a search for an optimal (ideal) methodology — that is, the identification and application of a set of processes, methods and tools that can consistently and predictably lead to software development success. This chapter presents the basis for pursuing a more flexible and adaptive approach to methodology. Less methodical methodologies, under a variety of names, take a contingency-oriented approach. Because of the limitations in the nature of methodology, the high failure rate in software development, the need to develop methodology within an environmental context and the pressures of fast-paced “e-development,” the authors argue that further exploration and definition of an adaptive, contingency-based approach to methodology is justified.