Large-scale sustainable information systems development in a developing country: the making of an Islamic banking package

Information technology (IT) transfer to developing countries is often affected by various problems. Most available application packages are too expensive and were originally designed to work in a developed economy. The international features of the application packages reduced the problems associated with long duration and huge cost of customization. Nevertheless, there are still some processes that require many peculiar requirements that customization of the off-the-shelf applications cannot meet. With the rapid changes in IT and the business environment, it is becoming essential to rely on information system that can be sustained and upgraded without much cost in order to meet those changes. This case describes a project for the development of such a system.We present the background of the IT company and an Islamic bank as the customer. We highlight the circumstances that led to their decision to develop the systems locally. We discuss the facts that surround the development of the system: the outsourcing decision made by the African Arab Islamic Bank (AFAIB), the project management and systems development at Technology Associates Ltd. (TA), and other information system issues related to developing countries and their effect on the project's success.