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A System Development Methodology Framework for Development of Rural Community Based Information Systems in South Africa

For more than a decade researchers, development agencies and government have focussed on the use of Information and Communication Technologies to improve the socio-economic status of people in underdeveloped rural communities. In the past few years there has been remarkable recognition of the importance of developing systems that address specific needs of rural communities. Education, Health, Commerce, Government and Agriculture are amongst rural community needs that could be addressed by these systems. System development is a complex process and studies have shown that if poorly conducted, the process could lead to failure of the system being developed. Due to differences in context and application, the processes followed in the development of the rural community systems need to differ from those of commercial applications. One such difference is the choice of the Information System Development Methodology [ISDM] used. Following a methodological approach to Information Systems development is important as it improves discipline, standardization and monitoring towards a quality system. There are hundreds of Information System Development Methodologies available for use during development and choosing the wrong ISDM has been linked to problems such as systems being delivered late, over budget or not meeting the needs of the users. To improve success during the development of rural community systems, this paper proposes an Information System Development Methodology framework that could be adopted distinctively for rural community systems. This framework takes into account the social attributes of people in rural communities, the nature of the systems being developed and the role of the users in the systems being developed.