Software development process : web-based pavement management systems as case study

Abstract

In the Information Technology Era today, software has been one of the most significant elements to help organizations achieve increased productivity and commercial success. For developers to create effective software, an appropriate development process must be applied. Generally, the process of developing software can be considered as having six phases: requirements engineering, design, implementation, testing, maintenance, and project management. Over the past thirty years, different kinds of life cycle models have been developed by applying these phases to provide developers with the most appropriate procedures for projects of various types. In addition, a set of development fundamentals should be considered during the process to optimize time, effort and cost in developing each project. This thesis studies the software development process and its effects on the development schedule of a Pavement Management and Inspection System (PMIS) project as a case study. From the case study, it can be concluded that choosing the appropriate life cycle model and applying the pertinent fundamentals, with the essential components of the development speed, can lead the project to be a success. Problems encountered during the development process are also valuable information to study as it may prevent them from occurring in the future.