ITT545:WEB

ENGINEERING
CHAPTER 1: An Introduction to Web Engineering

PREPARED BY: NOR AIMUNI MD RASHID/ UiTM CAWANGAN MELAKA KAMPUS JASIN
CHAPTER OUTLINE

 Motivation Behind Web Engineering

 Categories of Web Applications
 Characteristics of Web Applications
 Evolution of Web Engineering
 CHAPTER OBJECTIVES &
OUTCOMES
 By the end of this chapter, student should be able to:
 Explain how, web engineering managing complexity and
diversity of large scale web development
 Categories types of web applications and the characteristics
of them.
1.1 MOTIVATION BEHIND WEB
ENGINEERING
WEB SITE vs WEB APPLICATION

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCES??

 Web Application
 The term Web application (WebApp) encompasses:
 everything from a simple Web page that might help a consumer
compute an automobile lease payment to a comprehensive
website that provides complete travel services for business people
and vacationers.
 Included within this category are complete websites, specialized
functionality within websites, and information processing
applications that reside on the Internet or on an Intranet or Extranet.

A web application or web app is any 

application software that runs in a web browser or is
What is Web created in a browser-supported
Application?
programming language (such as the combination of 
JavaScript, HTML and CSS) and relies on a common
web browser to render the application
 PROBLEM OF WEB PROJECT
 Survey by Cutter Consortium:
 Failure to meet business needs (84% of the
projects)
 Time slippages (79% of the projects)
 Cost overruns (63% of the projects)
 Lack of functionality (53% of the projects)
 Poor-quality deliverables (52% of the
projects)
 New form of crisis appeared known as WEB
CRISIS
 WEB ENGINEERING
 DEFINITION: The application of systematic and quantifiable
approaches (concepts, methods, tools and techniques) to cost-
effective requirements analysis, design, implementation, testing,
operation and maintenance of high quality Web applications (Gerti
Karpel).
 Objectives of Web Engineering:
 Clear, consistent, unambiguous and documentable requirements
 SDLC approach of development of Web applications and web sites
 Proper Web project planning
 Continuous feedback and reviews of both developers and
customers.
 WEB ENGINEERING
 Advantages of Web engineering
 makes it possible to plan and iterate
development processes
 permits continuous evolution of Web
applications,
 saves both time and cost
 Delivers good-quality Web software
1.2 CATEGORIES OF WEB
APPLICATIONS
Web application = Web hypermedia + Web software
application

Web hypermedia: non-conventional application that has

huge information nodes, links, anchors and navigations
(HTML,XML, JavaScript and multimedia applications)

Web software applications: conventional software

application that depends on Web or its infrastructure for
execution (e-commerce applications, databases,
knowledge bases, etc.)
 Document-centric Web sites
 Very simple : Consists of set of web pages only that are
stored on the Web server
 Client sends request to the server and the response is sent
to the client in a very short time
 BUT, hackable
 Example: simply homepages, Webcasts and simple Web
apps
 Interactive Web applications also exits such as ajax-based
application, where the controls are loaded and unloaded
dynamically.
Transactional Web Applications

 Involves database at its back to store customer web data

 Read and manipulate data
 Examples: Online shopping, online airline booking, online
banking etc.
 Workflow-based Web
Applications
 Easy handling of workflows within or between
different organization – need inter-operability.
 Require certain structuring of automated processes
 Issues: complexity of the Web services, the
participating companies and their workflows.
 Examples: B2B solutions in e-commerce, e-
government applications, web-based support of
patient workflows.
 Portal-oriented Web Applications
 Central hubs that act as a point of access to the
Web
 Examples: Yahoo, Netscape
 Specialized portals:
 business portals – give information to the
employees through Intranet or Extranet
 Marketplace portal: Two types; horizontal
portals- operates on business to customer (B2C)
market. Vertical portals- involve companies from
a single sector.
 Ubiquitous Web applications

 Provide services as per the customer’s demand

like displaying temperatures on the screen of
mobiles of customers, menu displays of the day
etc.
Categories of Web Applications Based on
functionality
Functionality/Category Examples
Informational Newspapers on net, manual, reports,
product catalogues, online books
Interactive Registration forms, online games,
customized information
presentations
Transactional Online shopping, online banking,
online airline reservation, online bil
payments
Workflow-oriented Online planning and scheduling,
inventory management, status
monitoring, Software Configuration
Management (SCM)
Collaborative work-management Distributed authoring system,
collaborative design tools
Online communal societies Discussion groups, online
marketplace marketplaces, e-mail, recommender
1.3 CHARACTERISTICS OF WEB
APPLICATIONS
 General Characteristics of Web
 AApplications:
well- engineered Web system are:
 Functionally complete and correct
 Usable
 Robust and reliable
 Maintainable
 Secure
 Having a better performance under variable loads
 Scalable
 portable
 Interoperable
 Reusable
 Well-documented
 Product-related Characteristics
 Content: Must be correct, integrated and updated
periodically.
 Hypertext: basic unit of any Web applications.
 Node: self-contained and uniquely identifiable
information unit like a Web page, which is essentially an
HTML-like page or document. It can be reached via
uniform resource locators (URLs).
 A link: a path form one node to another
 An anchor: the source or destination of a link.
 Presentation: at presentation level, the main focus is on
the graphical user interfaces (GUIs) - should be
 Usage-related Characteristics
 Social context: include two aspects:
 Spontaneity: the number of users cannot be reliably
predicted
 Multiculturality: includes certain behaviors related to
Web such as understanding the user contexts at the
development stage of Web application only, giving
special discounts to regular Web site visitors, etc.
 Usage-related Characteristics
 Technical context: it includes the network hardware, software and
its related devices, quality of service and multiplatform delivery.
 Quality of Service (QoS): involves the consideration of various
characteristics of the transmission media like its bandwidth,
reliability, etc. while developing any web application.
 Multiplatform delivery: multiple platform eg: operating system,
browsers, hardware
 Natural context: includes location and time parameters. Globality
and availability of data that creates a high degree of
heterogeneity.
 Development-related

Characteristics
Development teams: Multidisciplinary and young
 Technical infrastructure: refer to non-uniformity of browsers.
Immature components (applications that have errors or lack
functionalities) may be used due to the market competition.
 Development process: flexibility to react to the changing
conditions thus, it is impossible to have predefined project plan.
 Required integration of already existing solutions:
 Integral integration: integration of Web application with the
existing old/ legacy systems when the available contents have
to be made available throughout the Web application.
 External integration: integration of content and services of the
external Web applications.
1.4 EVOLUTION OF WEB
ENGINEERING
 Traditional or conventional software evolution needs a well-
planned series of versions while Web applications are developed
continuously – web applications are in permanent maintenance
phase.
 The constant change of requirements of a Web application is the
core characteristic of Web applications. Change may be in the
product, its usage and its development.
 The evolution of web has brought together some disparate
disciplines like media, information science and communication
technology.
 Web projects require shorter development times and shorter life
cycle due to several market pressures today.
 The advances in the field of Web engineering have led to an
avalanche of Web sites.