The Need for Novel Development Methodologies for Software Projects in Universities: A Sri Lankan Case Study

Abstract

Software engineering requires coordination across a number of disciplines and is concerned with theories, methods and tools for professional software development. Project management is considered as the main function which facilitates better utilization of knowledge, skills, resources, tools and techniques in any such project to achieve its intended objectives. But, there is no such standard method that can be used in every project. Project Management practices mainly depend on the industry it is been used; i.e. construction, manufacturing, marketing, auditing, software engineering, etc. For software engineering there are number of standard Project Management methods used in different circumstances. Nevertheless, it was difficult to find a specific methodology that can be used in a university context, which is more focused on innovations, research and learning. The paper aims to motivate why a novel software product development methodology should be developed for used within universities, such methodology may even be possible to be later implemented within the software industry, where innovation is a major ingredient.