Affiliations: [a] School of Information Technology, Illinois State University, Old Union Building, Campus Box 5150, Normal, IL 61790, USA | [b] Department of Accounting and MIS, Harrison College of Business, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701, USA | [c] Department of Business Information Systems, Haworth College of Business, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008, USA
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author. Department of Accounting and MIS, Harrison College of Business, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701, USA. Tel.: +1 573 651-2121; Fax: +1 573 651-2992; E-mail: hjwen@semo.edu.
Abstract: This article discussed the problem that is commonly faced by project managers in selecting an appropriate software development model. A good number of models and the ongoing debate between the advocates of agile and traditional models make the selection of a right one uneasy and complicated. The purpose of this study is to propose a new alternative view in selecting development models from the perspective of degree of flexibility in different project situations. The results of a survey conducted to 74 project managers and software developers indicate that there are three naturally occurring development model groups, including heavyweight (Waterfall and V models), middleweight (Incremental and Spiral models), and lightweight (Extreme Programming and SCRUM). A canonical function is identified to help project managers select an appropriate software development model for each potential or planned project.
Keywords: Systems analysis and design, software development lifecycle model, methodology, heavyweight, middleweight, lightweight
