DM to adopt advanced system development management frameworks and methodologies

The department has developed and implemented its Quality Assurance Methodology in particular to actively control, manage and improve the quality of the systems deployed to support Dubai Municipality, said Abdula Al Sheibani Assistant Director General for Technical Services in DM.

The DM ITD executes around 25 system development projects each year to meet the different needs of the organization, said Abdul Hakim Malek, ITD Director. These projects are requested by various DM departments and implemented by ITD to support the overall strategic objectives of the organization. Most of the projects are developed by outsourcing to third party vendors, so the challenge of reviewing and auditing the quality of delivered applications is a top priority, Malek added.

The Management Frameworks and methodologies are all delivered via browser-based interface to facilitate simplified access over the DM intranet.

The Management Frameworks

The System Development and Support Section in ITD has reviewed its organisational structure to reflect the best practices recommended by COBIT and IEEE establishing clear roles and responsibilities for the section staff. The Management Frameworks cover all the three units of the section, namely, Strategy and Planning, Development and Support. The objective is to be able to select, develop and support high quality systems to serve DM departments as well as the public using DM services.

The Software Development Methodology

The Software Development Methodology defines the key activities to be undertaken at stages in a development lifecycle in three contexts appropriate to DM, including outsourced development, in-house development and package implementation. The Software Development Methodology provides support and guidance to project managers as well as analysts, developers and designers in the section.

The Quality Assurance Methodology

Quality is a key focus area for the ITD, this QA methodology directs the proper planning and implementation of QA activities for every project. Quality is built into every development effort based on the industry best practices goals and policies. For each development project the System Development and Support Section works closely with vendors to develop new services, agreeing a quality plan and identifying checkpoints through the system development to assure the quality being delivered to DM.

The System Development section has now adopted these methodologies and is implementing pilot projects to phase the introduction to new projects and ensure all staff are trained to effectively use the methodology.