An empirical investigation into the adoption of systems development methodologies

A postal survey was conducted to determine the following: the extent to which systems development methodologies are used in practice; the rating of their contribution to the development process; and the future trend in methodology adoption, whether the trend is toward increased usage or not. Among the main findings of the study were that 60 percent of the respondents were not using methodologies. Also, only six percent of respondents reported following a methodology rigorously. Finally, the forecast is not positive for methodology advocates: 79 percent of those not using a methodology indicated that they did not intend to adopt one.