Web Site Development Methodologies - High Level Models and Methodologies for Information Systems - page 69

development, deployment and maintenance of high quality Web-based systems and
applications (Murugesan et al. 2001 ).

Many developers of Web applications traditionally focused on process logic and
data management before moving on to develop the user interface, a practice that
derives from the well-established methodologies for software engineering which
dated back to the 1960s. But in Web development, user interface is of the utmost
importance, as it provides users with an immediate

”

first impression of the Web

site s purpose. This has introduced an aesthetic component that did not previously

exist, attributing much greater importance to the design stages, and the designers
themselves (Deshpande and Hansen 2001 ).
This is one of the aspects that pertain to the speci

'

c nature of Web development
as opposed to traditional software development, but there are other aspects such as:
The fact that its document-oriented, containing static or dynamic content; its heavy
reliance on appearance and visual creativity; a vast, potentially global, user base,
with the corresponding variety in pro

les and preferences; shorter time frames for
development than with regular software; a greater variety in the background,
experience, and skills necessary for Web developers than for traditional software
engineers (Murugesan et al. 2001 ).
Web Engineering is centered on the premise that Web development has 6 dif-
ferent dimensions (Deshpande et al. 2002 ), as illustrated in Fig. 4.3 . The authors
argue that most existing Web development techniques do not follow all of these
stages, starting the project not with planning and management but at a given later
stage (Deshpande et al. 2002 ).
Web Engineering proposes a multidisciplinary approach to development and
determines that all of the following stages of development must be taken into
account for a solid, successful Web product (Murugesan et al. 2001 ):

Fig. 4.3 Levels of Web
development according to
Web Engineering