Through a glass, darkly: methodologies: bend to fit?

The S o f t w a r e P r a c t i t i o n e r "Through a glass, darkly" is a biblical description of the imperfect way in which we see the world around us. A brand-new column like this one should start out with a cymbal-clanging, horn-blowing topic. You know the old sayings about hitting a mule with a two-by-four to get its attention, or needing to get an audience into the tent before you can preach to them? Well, in this first column I want to talk about systems development methodologies. Wait-don't quit reading yetl I think there's some interesting new information coming forth in what has.be-come a hohum topic, and I want to talk to you about what I think that information means. Some of this may even surprise you. In fact, the thrust of this column may actually free you, the reader, from a load of guilt you may be carrying about the use of methodolo-gies. Based on my experiences and readings, my guess is that you're at least somewhat frustrated with the methodologies you're familiar with, and you find them hard to use. Truth to tell, you may even bend those method-ologies to fit your problem. And whether you actually do the bending, or only wish you could, my suspicion is that you at least have some mixed feelings, and perhaps even some guilt, about that dilemma. So, you may be wondering, what could a column like this do to help with that guilt? First of all, a little groundwork. A methodology, for the purposes of this column, is a collection of methods or techniques for doing systems development. Every practitioner in the field has by now learned one or more. Methodology gurus have gotten very rich, and methodologies have gotten very, elaborate, over the years. Now, what is there new to say about method-ologies, and how can it help with guilt? Just this. Evidence is beginning to emerge that methodologies are not being used as their gurus defined them. That is, it appears to be true that tailoring of methodologies is the norm in the systems development field. In one research study (Hardy, 1995), the author finds that 88% of United Kingdom organizations using the struc-tured methods customize them to use them.