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Innovative sustainable methodology for managing in-house software development in SMEs

Abbas Tarhini (Lebanese American University, Beirut, Lebanon)
Manal Yunis (Lebanese American University, Beirut, Lebanon)
Abdul-Nasser El-Kassar (Lebanese American University, Beirut, Lebanon)

Benchmarking: An International Journal

ISSN: 1463-5771

Article publication date: 3 April 2018

869

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present an innovative agile methodology that proposes fundamental changes in managing the development of in-house information systems in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and benchmarks it with one of two database technologies enabling these systems to be both efficient and competitive.

Design/methodology/approach

The objectives are achieved by presenting an elaborated design of the agile methodology that manages the system development process by addressing three basic components: roles played by system players, process needed to fulfill the system development, and artifacts to document the project. A case study is conducted as a proof of the effectiveness of the proposed methodology and measures whether the selection of the database technology affects the effectiveness of the system development process.

Findings

Results show that, compared with traditional methodologies, the proposed methodology reduced the cost of system development and testing by 30 percent and enhanced the IT – business alliance. Further, this work found that the selection of a suitable database technology is strongly related to the complexity and interrelationships between the data used.

Originality/value

Such research did not receive the needed attention (Hunter, 2004) even in the past decade. Successful adoption of IT by companies could be in the form of customized IS which could be expensive for SMEs to adopt due to a lack in technical expertise and financial resources. The proposed methodology has the potential to promote sustainable development through helping SMEs in reducing the time and cost of IT project development.

Keywords

Citation

Tarhini, A., Yunis, M. and El-Kassar, A.-N. (2018), "Innovative sustainable methodology for managing in-house software development in SMEs", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 1085-1103. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-05-2017-0103

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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