The 1980s have seen the growth of a large number of different methodologies for developing information processing systems. A manager or analyst trying to decide which methodology, if any, to use has great difficulty in trying to assess the competing claims of the many different approaches. Such comparisons as have been published tend to be based on academic criteria rather than on practical experience. They tend to focus on syntax and relatively crude analyses of the semantics of the constructs used on the methods rather than on the philosophy behind the methods and the principles they embody. This book, which is based on a joint project of CCTA of the UK government and Siemens-Nixdorf Information Systems, compares two of the major European methodologies, SSADM of CCTA and GRAPES of SNI, with the aim of assessing the feasibility of pooling the efforts of both organizations in the attempt to devise a standard European methodology.