Documentation in Systems Development: A Significant Criterion for Project Success

Agile software development methods seem inherently suitable for today´s quick-paced business environment as they shorten the time to develop new systems and typically incur lower development costs compared to the conventional systems development life cycle (SDLC) approach. Software development project failures using conventional SDLC are often attributed to project delays, resulting in budget overruns. On the other hand, a well planned and documented systems development project is more likely to result in a system that meets the expectations of both the intended users and the software engineers. This paper takes another look at conventional SDLC methodology by focusing on an aspect that is often overlooked in systems development practice, namely the significance of good documentation.