AHP Approach for Selecting Application Development Methodology

Abstract

The digital transformation of an Indonesian oil and gas company has significantly increased the demand for and complexity of application development, making the selection of an appropriate development methodology a critical factor for project success. This study proposes a decision-making model integrating the Six-Pointed Star Framework with the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) technique to evaluate and select among three software development methodologies: Waterfall, Agile, and Hybrid, in the oil and gas industry. The evaluation is based on the Six-Pointed Star Framework derived from PMBOK, which includes scope, budget, time, resources, risk, and quality, further elaborated into relevant sub-criteria reflecting organizational conditions. The results indicate that the Agile method achieves the highest priority value (0.361), demonstrating its suitability for projects characterized by dynamic requirements, shorter development cycles, and high uncertainty; followed by Waterfall (0.333), which performs better in environments with well-defined requirements and strong cost control; and Hybrid (0.306), which provides a balanced alternative but does not outperform the other methods. Sensitivity analysis confirms that the priority rankings are stable under variations in criteria weights, indicating the robustness of the proposed model. This study contributes to both theory and practice by demonstrating the applicability of AHP to support strategic decision-making in methodology selection for application development. The findings provide practical insights for organizations to align development methodologies with project characteristics, thereby improving efficiency, reducing risks, and improving overall project outcomes.