Toward a practical methodological theory

The general objective of this paper is to describe the way the authors have been relating general system theory (GST) to practice. The authors applied GST to design a methodology for software development, first. Then, by means of the experience/knowledge learned from applying the methodology to specific systems, a continuous redesigning process started, which simultaneously generalized the methodologies and increased its complexity adding new modules for an increasing diversity of diverse-tasks needed for different systems/situations. The methodological kernel increased it generality and the sub-methodological modules increased its details. This paved the way for a general systems methodology which, when including cognitive/thinking method would return to the theoretical realm, i.e. to a methodological theory which, in turn, would pave the way to theoretical methodology.