Information Systems Development Methodologies: A Review Through a Teleology Approach

The information systems analysis and design methodologies devised at the outbreak of the third industrial revolution shaped the systems analysis discipline and have trickled down to all systems, influencing most aspects of human development. To cope with the explosion of digital technology, these methodologies had to be developed rapidly, drawing from a wide range of theoretical backgrounds, based mainly on the "hard" scientific method and the "softer" systems approach. In the run-up to Industry 4.0, with multiple information systems emerging, reflection on systems’ design fundamentals is important. Intended to serve human activity and well-being, information systems are anthropocentric. Their success lies in their ability to serve human goals. Information systems analysis and design methodologies play a role in this by ensuring the best match between what is sought from systems and what they deliver in terms of the systems’ underlying final cause, or "telos". The paper investigates the teleological orientation of four founding systems analysis and design methodologies. Using the Wood-Harper and Fitzgerald taxonomy in order to identify the conceptual origins of the four methodologies under review, it categorizes and subsequently incorporates them into an extended taxonomy, assesses whether and how they are devised to cater to the incorporation of goals, and explains the inferred results based on the taxonomy. The paper posits that the founding information systems analysis and design methodologies do not have a marked teleological orientation and do not dispose of techniques for adequately incorporating systems’ goals.