The systems development dilemma: whether to adopt formalised systems development methodologies or not?

Systems development issues occupy a position of central imponance in the information systems field and, indeed.. much has been prescribed in the quest for successful systems development. However. given the well· documented Msoftwarc: crisis", success is far from guaranteed for many systems development projects. Many researchers see the solution to the software crisis in terms of increased control and the morc widespread adoption of rigorous and formalised system development methodologies (SDMs), and this paper first presents the arguments and pressures in favour offormaIised methodologies. However, the problems associated with the use of fonnalised methodologies have: not perhaps recieved as much actention in the literature. A number of arguments are presented in this paper which question the value of formalised methodologies. These dichotomous arguments-for and against fonnalised SDMs-bring about a dilemma for systems developers as to whether to adopt a formalised development methodology or not. The implications of this dilemma are discussed in this paper and a number of issues for further research are proposed.