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This book discusses the working strategies involved in traditional systems development life cycle (SDLC) and proposes a programme that tries to integrate prototyping life cycle (PLC) in SDLC, not just as part of the latter, but as a competing partner which must feature prominently to modify the approaches to the organization of the phases of SDLC. While SDLC is the most logical and authoritative way of developing an information system, its strict adherence to scientific discipline of development that gives it the distinctive credibility works, also, against its efficacy with regard to the obscure role the user plays in the development process. We suggest a relatively liberal methodology that recognizes the necessity of continuous user participation in the development process by combining the principles of PLC ans SDLC and attempting its implementation in a relational database system for the School of Education of the University of Nairobi, Kenya.

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Samson Gunga is a Senior Lecturer of Philosophy of Education and Information Systems and Chair of the Department of Educational Foundations of the University of Nairobi. He received B.Ed.degree in Mathematics and Education, M.Ed. and Ph.D. in Philosophy of Education and M.Sc. in Information Systems from the University of Sunderland.

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