Collaborative Platform of Networked Integrated Legal Affairs Management System (NILAMs) using Hybrid Agile-Waterfall Approach

Legal affairs management that includes drafting, vetting, endorsement, and approval of legal documents was such a challenge especially when it involves a multi-level process and stakeholders. Continuous increased of legal matters handled by Legal Advisor Office (LAO) involving various departments within UiTM system has resulted more physical space required to store office files; more papers consumed to print out and photocopy legal documents; and more times spent by officers to draft, vet, and communicate with the clients and stakeholders. This paper presents the development process of the first phase of a web-based system known as the Networked Integrated Legal Affairs Management System (NILAMs) for the LAO of Universiti Teknologi MARA. NILAMs has been developed to address the shortfalls of existing web-based legal affairs management system that are not suitable for LAO of public universities. NILAMs development adopts a hybrid Agile-Waterfall approach which consists of five main stages namely; construction of a conceptual model, identifying the stakeholders' requirements, design, construction and testing the system. From the results of a guided User Acceptance Test (UAT), the system is proven to be functioning with very little bugs detected and only minor Change of Request (CR) suggested by the users. Due to the similarities in organisational structure, functions, and responsibilities, NILAMs is suitable for adoption by the LAO of other public universities, ministries and government agencies in Malaysia who encounter similar problems.