The Landscape of Rigorous and Agile Software Development Life Cycles (SDLCs) for BPMS: A Systematic Selective Literature Review

Abstract

Business Process Management Systems (BPMS) are specialized Information Systems for the definition, execution, and management of business organizational processes including the participation of users, software, and data. To develop BMPS, several rigorous software development life cycles (SDLCs) have been reported in the literature in the last two decades. However, given the current organizational interest in agile SDLCs, we identified a knowledge gap on conceptual comparison between rigorous and agile SDLCs for BPMS. Consequently, this research aims to provide this missed conceptual review between both types of SDLCs. A systematic selective literature review (SSLR) research method upon 25 high-quality sources for the period 2000-2023 was conducted, and the conceptual review of eight SDLCs (four rigorous and four agile SDLCs) are reported using a rigorous and an agile SDLC pro form from core BPMS and agile paradigm literature. An empirical pilot evaluation on the usefulness, ease of use, and value of these conceptual reviews is also reported, and in overall the scores from BPMS practitioners and academics are satisfactory. On conceptual reviews, we found that three of the four rigorous SDLCs cover at most moderately the expected theoretical roles, phases-activities and work products, and none can be considered a de-facto standard to be used. Regarding the four agile SDLCs, we found that only two cover satisfactory the expected roles and phases-activities but partially work products. Nevertheless, the eight SDLCs are minimally documented, and consequently academics and practitioners lack full descriptions of them for their correct learning and practical utilization. Hence, our review provides theoretical and practical insights for discriminating both rigorous and agile SDLCs for BPMS and calls for further conceptual and empirical research to reach mature, standardized and systematic applied SDLCs for BPMS.