Agile Based Development Methodology for Mobile Commerce Applications

There are several system development methodologies including traditional and agile methodologies which are being utilized in current systems development. However, it could be argued that existing methodologies may not be suitable for the development of mobile commerce applications as these applications are utilized in different contexts from conventional fixed e-commerce applications such as they are displayed on a small screen device, they are utilized in an unstable or movable environment and they need to be used in a secured environment to deliver financial transactions over mobile network. This study aimed to construct an agile based development methodology for mobile commerce applications. In order to achieve this aim, three objectives have been proposed including identification of essential issues for developing m-commerce applications, construction of a predictable agile based methodology used for developing m-commerce applications and evaluation for its applicability and practicality. The research methodology used in the study is the design research, which include the steps of awareness of problems, suggestion, development, evaluation and conclusion. The research methods used to assist the mentioned research methodology include literature analysis, industry visits, semi-structured interview, survey, formulative research and experimental evaluation. The methodology constructed contains the integration of essential factors in each phase of systems development life cycle as well as guidelines to follow for conducting activities in the application development, including specific models, tools, and techniques. From the evaluation of the constructed methodology, the results showed two essential outcomes. Firstly, the constructed methodology is applicable as it can be used to build the intended system, mobile commerce applications in this case. Secondly, for practicality, it showed that the constructed methodology is practical as when comparing to the traditional waterfall development by using the eleven measurements specified, it exposed more benefits to the development process.