Cooperative Development of Web-based Mass Information Systems

This paper describes a research framework which led to the development of industry-specific reference models for mass information systems (mass IS). As one of the primary means of standardized communication, these models provide an invaluable opportunity to strengthen the ties between academic research and industry practice. By avoiding structural inconsistencies and mistakes, companies are able to improve the quality of their systems, usually at low costs compared to acquiring the required know-how from external commercial organizations. Researchers, on the other hand, are able to test hypotheses about the success factors of mass IS in different industries. For this reason the extended World Wide Web Design Technique (eW3DT) was developed and - in cooperation with renowned Austrian and German companies—applied to a number of Web- based prototypes

The Derivation of a pragmatic requirements framework for web development.

Web-based development is a relatively immature area of Software Engineering, producing often complex applications to many different types of end user and stakeholders. Web Engineering as a research area, was created to introduce processes that enable web based development to be repeatable and to avoid potential failure in the fast changing landscape that is the current ubiquitous Internet. A survey of existing perspectives from the literature highlights a number of points. Firstly, that web development has a number of subtle differences to Software Engineering and that many web development methods are not used. Further, that there has been little work done on what should be in a web development method. A full survey of 50 web development methods finds that they do not give enough detail to be used in their entirety; they are difficult for a non-computer scientist to understand in the techniques they use and most do not cover the lifecycle, particularly in the area of requirements, implementation and testing. This thesis introduces a requirements framework for novice web developers. It is created following an in-depth case study carried out over two years that investigates the use of web development methods by novice developers. The study finds that web development methods are not easy to understand, there is a lack of explanation as to how to use the techniques within the method and the language used is too complex. A high level method is derived with an iterative process and with the requirements phase in the form of a framework; it addresses the problems that are discussed and provides excellent support for a novice web developer in the requirements phase of the lifecycle. An evaluation of the method using a group of novice developers who reflect on the method and a group who use it for development finds that the method is both easy to understand and use

The derivation of a pragmatic requirements framework for web development

Web-based development is a relatively immature area of Software Engineering, producing often complex applications to many different types of end user and stakeholders. Web Engineering as a research area, was created to introduce processes that enable web based development to be repeatable and to avoid potential failure in the fast changing landscape that is the current ubiquitous Internet. A survey of existing perspectives from the literature highlights a number of points. Firstly, that web development has a number of subtle differences to Software Engineering and that many web development methods are not used. Further, that there has been little work done on what should be in a web development method. A full survey of 50 web development methods finds that they do not give enough detail to be used in their entirety; they are difficult for a non-computer scientist to understand in the techniques they use and most do not cover the lifecycle, particularly in the area of requirements, implementation and testing. This thesis introduces a requirements framework for novice web developers. It is created following an in-depth case study carried out over two years that investigates the use of web development methods by novice developers. The study finds that web development methods are not easy to understand, there is a lack of explanation as to how to use the techniques within the method and the language used is too complex. A high level method is derived with an iterative process and with the requirements phase in the form of a framework; it addresses the problems that are discussed and provides excellent support for a novice web developer in the requirements phase of the lifecycle. An evaluation of the method using a group of novice developers who reflect on the method and a group who use it for development finds that the method is both easy to understand and use.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Development and evaluation of a methodology for developing websites

This research focuses on the development of a new methodology for creating effective websites, especially those used for marketing. It was found that existing methodologies were missing some key stages - user participation and “real interaction” (i.e. monitoring of user interaction with a prototype site). This has led to users being frustrated and lacking loyalty to the website. There is great potential for combining aspects of methodologies from different disciplines; however, these need to be integrated in a coherent way. To address these problems, a new integrated methodology was developed in this research. The new methodology was created from basic concepts derived from: lifecycle models; Information Systems development methodologies; methodologies with explicit human factors aspects; websites methodologies; marketing methodologies; and additional techniques such as task analysis and detailed website design and implementation. After studying the lifecycle model, the researcher identified four key principles, which were the foundation of the research: user participation; iteration; usability and “real interaction”. The way in which these four principles were incorporated in each methodology was evaluated in order to choose the strongest stages to utilize in the new combined methodology. After reviewing techniques for methodology integration, a new draft methodology was produced. To assess the new methodology, two research phases were used - interviews and a questionnaire. In the former phase, the researcher interviewed representatives from nine website development companies in Western Australia to discuss their current methodologies and compared these with the new methodology.Most of the industry participants were pleased with the structure of the new methodology, as most agreed that it incorporates the necessary requirements to develop a successful website. The interviews generated some recommendations for revisions to the methodology, which assisted the researcher to improve the new methodology. In the latter phase, an online questionnaire was completed by a total of website industry participant andInformation Systems Professionals, in order to assess the revised methodology. Results from the interviews and questionnaire supported the research hypothesis – i.e. that the new integrated methodology can provide a more effective way of developing websites, utilizing the four key principles. This thesis points to the need for further research, including the development of a website describing the new methodology. This website will incorporate a software tool to facilitate selection of particular stages, steps and techniques from theintegrated methodology to produce a tailored methodology for any specific project, thereby implementing the concept of “contingency”

An investigation of web-based hypermedia design support: methods and tools

Since the Internet networking was first established, the World Wide Web (or WWW) provides a new opportunity to deliver information and to communicate with others. Therefore, many organisations and industries have joined this exciting technology to take advantage of the Web. In recent years, the opportunity has arisen for other tasks to be carried out on the Web apart from delivering information. As the Web applications and documents have become larger and more complex, they have experienced many design and development problems which often lead to very high maintenance cost. To improve the quality of Websites and the structure of information, the designers need structured design methods, guidelines, and tools to assist their work. Some researchers have proposed hypermedia design methods and guidelines, which contain development cycle with formal design techniques to assist the construction of Web page designs. To overcome the design and development problems, this research is carried out by surveying currently available design methods. It shows the ways to apply these methods for developing structured Web sites. The results of this research led to identifying the design stages involved in developing Web sites using hypermedia methods. It also presents a CASE tool to provide a development environment for producing Web pages based on hypermedia design stages. This encourages Web designers to apply structured hypermedia design methods to improve the quality of design and to reduce the maintenance cost. The thesis is relevant for end-users, Web designers from organisations, institutes, and institutes for those who want to apply structured hypermedia design methods for producing their Web documents

Entwicklung und Implementierung eines modellgestützten Datenrepositories : das KBS Hyperbook System

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Engineering adaptive web applications

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Une méthode d'inspection automatique de recommandations ergonomiques tout au long du processus de conception des applications Web

Les applications Web actuelles offrent de plus en plus de services. Pour éviter les difficultés d'usage de ces applications, l'utilisabilité doit être assurée. L'évaluation de l'utilisabilité est une tâche qui requiert une expertise en ergonomie logicielle. Cette expertise peut être capitalisée sous forme de recommandations qui sont l'expression d'une connaissance en ergonomie et qui vont aider à l'évaluation. Toutefois, puisqu'il est nécessaire d'appliquer celles-ci de manière systématique, leur inspection manuelle peut s'avérer laborieuse. Pour ne pas être limité par l'inspection manuelle, des outils ont été développés pour guider et supporter l'inspection automatique. Un des avantages de ces outils est que les connaissances en ergonomie y sont directement intégrées. De plus, le manque d'experts et le coût élevé des autres méthodes d'évaluation font que l'inspection automatique est une méthode adaptée. Cependant, ces outils ne peuvent évaluer que l'application finale et si des erreurs sont détectées, des modifications importantes de l'application peuvent avoir lieu. Dans cette thèse nous proposons une méthode d'évaluation basée sur modèles permettant de s'assurer tout au long du cycle de vie de l'utilisabilité des applications Web développées. Nous avons établi une ontologie qui organise les recommandations autour des éléments de l'interface pour identifier précisément quels éléments évaluer à chaque étape du cycle de vie. Cette ontologie est exploitée pour vérifier l'utilisabilité sur les différents artefacts produits dans le cycle de vie. Ces travaux ont été appliqués et validés à l'échelle industrielle sur une plateforme de développement de téléservices.The increasing use of the Web as a software platform together with the advance of technology has promoted Web applications as a start point for delivering information and services. Facing to the ever growing number of users, usability became a major requirement for the universal access of Web applications. In the last years, a number of evaluation methods have been developed by researchers, practitioners and Information Technology companies to help organizations to identify and to fix usability problems. However, usability evaluation of Web sites is not a straightforward process. On one hand, usability evaluation requires some knowledge and expertise in software ergonomics. One the other hand, due to constant evolution of Web application, it is required frequent evaluations to make sure that content updates do not introduce new usability problems. In order to overcome these limitations, much effort has been devoted in the development of tools for automating the inspection of usability and accessibility guidelines. However, tools currently available can only evaluate the final applications. In this thesis we propose a model-based evaluation method that allows ensuring the ergonomic quality of Web applications throughout the lifecycle. We developed an ontology that organizes recommendations around interface elements of a Web application and that allows identifying precisely what elements to evaluate at each phase of the lifecycle. We exploit this ontology to assess the various artifacts produced throughout the lifecycle. This work has been applied and validated at an industrial scale on an e-service development platform

Portal do empreendedor da UA: uma ferramenta de incentivo e apoio ao empreendedorismo

Mestrado em Gestão e Desenvolvimento em TurismoO empreendedorismo está a crescer a uma taxa elevada em todo o mundo, quer como tema de estudo e investigação, quer como campo de prática. Pessoas de todas as idades, com as mais diversas formações e posições sociais estão a iniciar o seu próprio negócio e, no processo, estão a dar uma nova forma à economia global. A ideia principal do empreendedorismo é criar ou desenvolver o espírito empreendedor dentro das fronteiras das empresas, de tal modo a permitir uma atmosfera de inovação e prosperidade. No entanto, muitos investigadores têm notado a falta de educação contínua neste campo e sugerido que a educação em empreendedorismo se deve iniciar na escola primária e continuar através todos os níveis de ensino. Em adição, estudos na área comprovam que o espírito empreendedor pode ser objecto de ensino/aprendizagem no quadro institucional das actividades de formação inicial no ensino superior. Torna-se necessário, deste modo, explorar a possibilidade de construir e/ou reforçar as atitudes e competências empreendedoras através da educação e formação. A formação para arranque de negócios, proporciona aos potenciais empreendedores conhecimentos e competências, que lhes permitem gerir, de uma forma eficaz, o processo e ultrapassar certas dificuldades durante a criação e o lançamento da empresa. O objectivo principal desta tese é apresentar o Portal do Empreendedor da Universidade de Aveiro, que tem como visão, constituir-se como canal privilegiado de suporte ao empreendedor português, auxiliando-o na definição, planeamento, formalização e desenvolvimento da sua empresa, disponibilizando-o informação, formação e consultoria sobre as questões relevantes e ajudando-o a constituir a sua rede de contactos próximos e alargados. O conteúdo do Portal do Empreendedor fornece o material necessário para iniciar e gerir um pequeno negócio, com êxito, no actual ambiente competitivo do século XXI, onde muitos iniciam seu próprio negócio todos os anos, mas apenas alguns têm êxito.The field of entrepreneurship is growing in large scale around the world. People of varying ages, diverse backgrounds and social positions are starting their own business and in the process are building a new global economy. The belief of entrepreneurship is to build, or innovate a new idea. Something not seen before or presented is a way that is new. Within a corporations boundaries, entrepreneurs drive an atmosphere of innovation and prosperity. Researchers have noticed a lack of education in this field and have suggested that the learning in entrepreneurship must start in the primary school and continue through all levels. In addition to this, researches in this area have proved that the entrepreneurial spirit can be an object of education (teaching/learning) at the beginning of third level education. For this reason, it becomes necessary to explore all the possibilities of building and re-enforcing the entrepreneurial attitudes and capabilities through learning. The education to start a business provides knowledge and capabilities to potential entrepreneurs that allow them to manage the process in an effective way and may also allow them to overcome some of the difficulties experienced during the creation and development of their business. The main objective of this thesis is to present the “Portal do Empreendedor” of Aveiro University, that consists of a database system and a web site that provides necessary information about entrepreneurship in a user-friendly way. Its vision is to serve like a channel of support to Portuguese entrepreneurs, helping them in the definition, planning, formalization and development of their new business. Providing necessary information, training and consulting about entrepreneurship and helping them to find and build the entrepreneurs network of contacts. The content of the “Portal do Empreendedor” helps the entrepreneur to start, develop and manage a small business with success in this increasingly competitive environment of the 21st century, where many start their own businesses but few succeed