| Planning a Software Development Lifecycle at Pears |
There is a new Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) “Pears” in town and they have contacted you to develop an information system for them. Pears is composed of a multitude of people with different mindsets including persons who are skilled with what they do and fresh hires.
You are facing a backlash for signing up with them as the NGO is new and the information system they want you to build for them is costly in nature. Pears has people working for them who have a very old mindset and are not exactly very welcoming towards fresh hires and new ideas. They are afraid of the changes made in the traditional way of managing operations and you have to convince them to follow a new modern approach.
The discussion under process is currently related to which software development model is the most appropriate to use in this scenario, the best go-to life cycle models and ways to improve services using the information system which is to be built as compared to other universities. Some of your new colleagues at Pears favour old tried and tested ways, others favour newer methods and some are in favour of using different methods for different projects, according to the situation.
As a new hire, you are seen to be both neutral to the arguments and have knowledge of up-to-date methods. Consequently, you are being tasked to prepare and demonstrate options in a number of different areas relevant to the discussions at Pears, based on the particular needs of an NGO.
In the first instance, you are expected to study different software development lifecycles and produce a presentation and detailed lecture notes supporting your ideas.
- The waterfall model is popular among some of your colleagues, produce an assessment of the merits of applying it to a large-scale development project specific to an NGO. Bear in mind there are several versions of this model.
- Produce a presentation describing two iterative software lifecycle models and two sequential software lifecycle models. Study and show how risk is managed in each of these models.
- Then to ensure that this is all clear, produce slides with a discussion, illustrated by an example, as to why a particular lifecycle model might be chosen for a particular development environment. Make both sides of the discussion clear and detailed.
- Critically evaluate and assess the merits of applying the waterfall lifecycle model of a large software development project in relation to NGO Information Systems