Web Engineering

© Copyright 2008 STI - INNSBRUCK www.sti-innsbruck.at

 What is Web Engineering?

• “The application of systematic and quantifiable

approaches to cost-effective analysis, design,
implementation, testing, operation, and
maintenance of high-quality Web applications.” –
Kappel et al.
• Extends Software Engineering to Web applications,
but with Web-centric approaches.
– And other relevant contributions from many disciplines

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 Defining Web Applications

• Unlike traditional software, the Web serves as both

development & user platform.
• A Web application is a system that utilizes W3C
standards & technologies to deliver Web-specific
resources to clients (typically) through a browser.
– Kind of …
• Technology + interaction.
– Web site with no software components?
– Web services?

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 Evolution

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 Web architectures

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 Web Evolution -- Key Features

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 Web 1.0

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 Web 2.0

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 Web 2.0

• Social Network: MySpace, Facebook, Twiter, orkut , Ning

• Media Sharing: you tube, slideshare and flicker
• Social Bookmarking: Delicious and CiteULike
• Wikis: Wikipedia, codeproject, expertechange, stackoverflow
• Creative works: podcasr, videocasts, blogs
• Content aggregation and organization: RSS (Really
• Simple Syndication) Feeds and tagging tools
• Remixing or mashups: geographical data with transportation
or crime data

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 Web 3.0

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 Semantic Web

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 • Resource Description Framework (RDF) subject,
predicate, object
• Web Ontology Language (OWL)

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 The Case for Web Engineering

• Application development on the Web remains

largely ad hoc.
– Spontaneous, one-time events
– Individual experience
– Little or no documentation for code/design
• Short-term savings lead to long-term problems in
operation, maintenance, usability, etc.
• Because Web apps are so interdependent, the
problem is compounded.

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 The Case for Web Engineering II

• Root Causes of poor design

– Document centric approach: an authoring activity
– The assumed simplicity of web application development:
tools , without specialized knowledge,
– Know how from relevant disciplines can not be applied or
is not used: adequate/inadequate, relevant/irrelevant
• Particularly alarming given…
– Most projects are now Web-based
– More “mission-critical” apps moving to the Web

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 The Case for Web Engineering III

• Top project pitfalls (Cutter, 2000)

– 84% - Failure to meet business objectives
– 79% - Project schedule delays
– 63% - Budget overrun
– 53% - Lack of functionality
• Web Engineering’s solution:
– Clearly defined goals & objectives
– Systematic, phased development
– Careful planning
– Iterative & continuous auditing of the entire process

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 Categories of Web Applications

Ubiqui Seman
tous tic
Web
Social
Collab
Web
orative
Comple

Workfl
ow Portal
xity

Transa Based
Orient
ctional
Interac ed
tive
Doc-C
entric

Development
History
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 Document-Centric Web sites

• Precursors to Web applications

• Static HTML documents
• Manual updates
• Pros
– Simple, stable, short response times
• Cons
– High management costs for frequent updates & large
collections
– More prone to inconsistent/redundant info

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 Interactive & Transactional

• The Common Gateway Interface

– http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi/interface.html
• Simple interactivity
• Dynamic page creation
• Content updates -> Transactions
– Decentralized
– Database connectivity
– Increased complexity

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 Workflow-Based Applications

• Designed to handle business processes across

departments, organizations & enterprises
• Business logic defines the structure
• The role of Web services
– Interoperability
– Loosely-coupled
– Standards-based
• Examples: B2B & e-Government
• High complexity; autonomous entities

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 Collaborative & Social Web

• Unstructured, cooperative environments

• Interpersonal communication is paramount
• Classic example: Wikis
• The Social Web
– Anonymity traditionally characterized WWW
– Moving towards communities of interest
– Examples: Blogs, collaborative filtering systems, social
bookmarking (e.g., del.icio.us)
– Integration with other forms of web applications (e..g,
NetFlix)

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 Portal-Oriented

• Single points-of-entry to heterogeneous information

– Yahoo!, AOL.com, my.pitt.edu
• Specialized portals
– Business portals (e.g., employee intranet)
– Marketplace portals (horizontal & vertical)
– Community portals (targeted groups)

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 Ubiquitous

• Customized services delivered anywhere via

multiple devices
• HCI is critical
– Limitations of devices (screen size, bandwidth?)
– Context of use
• Still an emerging field; most devices have single
focus:
– Personalization
– Location-aware
– Multi-platform delivery

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 Semantic Web

• Berners-Lee: Information on the Web should be

readable to machines, as well as humans.
• Using metadata and ontologies to facilitate
knowledge management across the WWW.
• Content syndication (RSS, Atom) promotes re-use
of knowledge
• Is the Semantic Web even possible?
• Authors devote a chapter to the Semantic Web, but
we will not focus on it in this course.

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 Characteristics of Web Apps

• How do Web applications differ from traditional

applications?
• Or, another way, what Software Engineering
methods & techniques can be adapted to Web
Engineering?
• 3 dimensions of the ISO/IEC 9126-1 standard
– Product
– Usage
– Development
• To this we can add a 4th dimension peculiar on the
web, need for continuous and fast evolution!

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 Characteristics - Product

• The “building blocks” of a Web application

• Content
– Document character & multimedia (# of dimensions?)
– Quality demands
• Navigation Structure (Hypertext)
– Non-linearity
– Disorientation & cognitive overload
• User interface (Presentation)
– Aesthetics
– Self-explanation

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 Characteristics - Usage

• Much greater diversity compared to traditional

non-Web applications
• Social Context (Users)
– Spontaneity
– Heterogeneous groups
• Technical Context (Network & Devices)
– Quality-of-Service
– Multi-platform delivery
• Natural Context (Place & Time)
– Globality
– Availability

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 Characteristics - Development

• The Development Team

– Multidisciplinary
– Young average age
– Community (including Open Source)
• Technical Infrastructure
– Lack of control on the client side
– Immaturity
• Process
– Flexibility
– Parallelism
• Integration
– Internal
– External

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 The 4th Dimension: Evolution

• All the above mentioned dimension are governed by

the evolution principle
– Continuous change
– Competitive pressure
– Fast pace
• Software Engineering: evolution is planned in a
constant number of release version
• Web Engineering: evolution is continuous
– Nowadays this is becoming true also for SE… it’s a loop,
when a discipline overlaps its ancestor, the ancestor learn
something back!

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 Key Knowledge Areas

Software
Hypermed
Engineerin
ia
g
•Process •Design & Structure
•Design Information Space
•Implementation
Web •Navigation
•Test Engineer •Visualization
•Operation •Usability
•Maintenance
ing •Collaboration

Network Informatio
Engineerin n
g © 1997-2005 Dr. Martin
Gaedke
Systems
•Physical Layer •Data Design, ER,...
•Internet Layer Others... •RDBMS
•Transport Layer •Query Languages
•Performance •Strg.Devices: FS,...
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 Standardization I

HTML Proprietary
• De facto standards
extensions
• Often initially appealing (cf
PDF and Java? PowerPoint, PDF) PNG
W3C
• May emerge as HTML
standards Z39.50
• Produces W3C
Recommendations on Java?
ISO
Web protocols
• Produces ISO Standards
• Managed approach to
• Can be slow moving and
developments
bureaucratic
• Protocols initially
• Produce robust standards
developed by
W3C members
• Decisions made by W3C, IETF
influenced by member and • Produces Internet
public review Drafts on Internet protocols
• Bottom-up approach to developments
PNG • Protocols developed by
interested individuals HTTP
HTML • "Rough consensus and working URN
HTTP code"
whois++

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 Standardization II

– Standards are important, especially for national

initiatives and other large-scale services
• More easy to integrate different projects if they adopt standards
– Proprietary solutions are often tempting because:
• They are available
• They are often well-marketed and well-supported
• They may become standardized
• Solutions based on standards may not be properly
supported by applications

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That’s almost all for day…

WRAP-UP

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 Things to keep in mind
(or summary)

• Web Engineering is not about HTML and JavaScript

– Like Software Engineering is not about C or Java!
• It aims at systematic development of Web
applications according to a specific methodology
• Web Engineering is not just Software Engineering
for the Web
• Web Engineering ask for multidisciplinary approach
• Standards are important in Web like in all the other
Engineering fields

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