Web Analysis

CIS 376
Bruce R. Maxim
UM-Dearborn
 Web Formulation Activities
• Identify business need for WebApp
• Work with stakeholders to describe WebApp
objectives
• Develop user profile(s)
• Define major features and functions
• Develop an integrated statement of scope
• Establish requirements gathering activity that
leads to development of analysis model
 Formulation Questions
• What is the business need for the WebApp?
• What are the objectives that the WebApp
must fulfill?
• Who will use the WebApp?
• What are user's intentions for using the
content?
• What are the applicative goals (ability to
perform tasks) for the WebApp?
 Requirements Gathering
• Ask stakeholders to define user categories
and develop descriptions for each
• Communicate with stakeholders to define
basic WebApp requirements
• Analyaze information gathered and use
information to follow-up with stakeholders
• Define use-cases that describe interaction
scenarios for each user class
 Defining User Categories
• What is the user’s overall objective
when using the WebAPP?
• What is the user’s background and
sophistication relative to the content and
functionality of the WebApp?
• What generic WebApp characteristics
does the user like or dislike?
 Communications Options
• Traditional focus groups
– trained moderator meets with group of
representative end-users
• Electronic focus groups
– on-line version of traditional focus group
• Iterative surveys
– series of focused surveys sent to representative
end-users (often web-based or e-mail)
 Communications Options
• Exploratory surveys
– web-based survey tied to WebApps having
user similar to the expected users of the
proposed WebApp
• Scenario-building
– selected end-users asked to create
informal use-cases that describe specific
WebApp interactions
 Analyzing Information
• Create a stack of cards for the identified content
objects, operation applied to objects, WebApp
functions, and non-functional requirements
• Shuffle the cards to randomize their order
• Give the shuffled cards to representative users and
ask them to arrange cards into groupings that
represent how they would like content and
functionality organized in the WebApp
 Analyzing Information
• WebE team examines the arrangements from several
users and seeks to identify common groupings from
the various arrangements
• Labels are assigned to these groupings by the WebE
team
• Users are asked to sort cards again using these
labels (the intent is to see is the labels are
communicating the location of information and
functionality)
• Process of labeling and sorting continues until
consensus is obtained
 Developing Use Cases
• Use-cases provide detail necessary to create
an effective analysis model
• Use-cases help the developer understand
how users perceive their interaction with the
WebApp
• Use-cases help to compartmentalize WebE
work
• Use-cases provide important guidance to
those testing the WebApp
 WebE Analysis
• Content analysis
– content provided by WebApp is identified
(data modeling techniques may be helpful)
• Interaction analysis
– use-cases can be developed to describe
user interaction with WebApp
 WebE Analysis
• Functional analysis
– usage scenarios used to define operations
and functions applied to the WebApp
content
• Configuration analysis
– WebApp environmental infrastructure is
described in detail)
 WebE Process Model:
Planning
• Estimate project cost
• Evaluate risks
• Define finely granulated schedule for first
increment
• Define coarser schedule for subsequent increments
 WebE Team Members
• Content developers and providers
• Web publisher
• Web engineer
• Support specialist
• Administrator or webmaster
 Building WebE teams
• Establish a set of team guidelines
• Strong team leader must be identified
• Individual team member talents must be
respected
• Team member commitment is essential
• Team members must be able to sustain
momentum when faced with adversity
 Project Management Concerns
Unique to WebE
• Many WebApps are out sourced to vendors
specializing in the development of web-based
systems and application
• WebApp development is relatively new and there
is little historical data to use for estimation
• The continuously evolving nature of WebApps
make estimation, risk analysis, and scheduling
more complicated since project scope is less
clearly defined
 Project Management Guidelines:
Initiating Project
• Many of the analysis activities should be
performed internally
• Rough design for the WebApp should be
developed internally
• Rough delivery schedule including milestone
dates and final delivery dates should be developed
• Degree of oversight and interaction by the
contractor with the vendor should be identified
 Project Management Guidelines:
Outsourcing Vendor Selection
• Interview past clients to determine vendor's past
performance
• Be certain the vendor's chief web engineer(s) from
past successful projects will involved with yours
• Carefully examine samples of the vendor's work
on projects similar to yours
 Project Management Guidelines:
Assessing the Validity of Price Quotes

• Does the quoted cost of the WebApp provide a

direct or indirect return-on-investment that
justifies the project?
• Does the vendor exhibit the required level of
professionalism and experience?
 Project Management Guidelines:
Assessing the Development Schedule

• Short development times suggest the use of fine

granularity in the schedule
• Link minor milestones scheduled on a daily
timeline
 Project Management Guidelines:
Managing Project Scope

• Use an incremental process model

• Allows the development team to freeze the scope
for one increment
• This allows an operational WebApp release to be
created
 WebE Worst Practices
• We have a great idea so let’s being building
the WebApp now.
• Stuff changes constantly, so there’s no point
in trying to understand WebApp
requirements.
• It’s OK to staff a WebE team with developers
whose primary experience has been with
traditional software development.
 WebE Worst Practices
• Be bureaucratic (lots of process
models, timesheets, unnecessary
project meetings, team leaders with no
WebApp management experience)
• Testing, why bother?