1 research outputs found
Quality modelling and metrics of Web-based information systems
In recent years, the World Wide Web has become a major platform for software
applications. Web-based information systems have been involved in many areas of
our everyday life, such as education, entertainment, business, manufacturing,
communication, etc. As web-based systems are usually distributed, multimedia,
interactive and cooperative, and their production processes usually follow ad-hoc
approaches, the quality of web-based systems has become a major concern.
Existing quality models and metrics do not fully satisfy the needs of quality
management of Web-based systems. This study has applied and adapted software
quality engineering methods and principles to address the following issues, a quality
modeling method for derivation of quality models of Web-based information systems;
and the development, implementation and validation of quality metrics of key quality
attributes of Web-based information systems, which include navigability and
timeliness.
The quality modeling method proposed in this study has the following strengths. It is
more objective and rigorous than existing approaches. The quality analysis can be
conducted in the early stage of system life cycle on the design. It is easy to use and
can provide insight into the improvement of the design of systems. Results of case
studies demonstrated that the quality modeling method is applicable and practical.
Practitioners can use the modeling method to develop their own quality models.
This study is amongst the first comprehensive attempts to develop quality
measurement for Web-based information systems. First, it identified the relationship
between website structural complexity and navigability. Quality metrics of
navigability were defined, investigated and implemented. Empirical studies were
conducted to evaluate the metrics. Second, this study investigated website timeliness
and attempted to find direct and indirect measures for the quality attribute. Empirical
studies for validating such metrics were also conducted.
This study also suggests four areas of future research that may be fruitful