It is a set of attributes that characterizes the capabilities of the access mechanism, the preferences of the user, and other aspects of the context into which a resource is to be delivered.
Published in Chapter:
A Model for Characterizing Web Engineering
Pankaj Kamthan (Concordia University, Canada)
Copyright: © 2009
|Pages: 7
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-026-4.ch420
Abstract
The Internet, particularly the Web, has opened new vistas for many sectors of society, and over the last decade it has played an increasingly integral role in our daily activities of communication, information, and entertainment. This evidently has had an impact on how Web applications are perceived, developed, and managed. The need to manage the size, complexity, and growth of Web applications has led to the discipline of Web engineering (Ginige & Murugesan, 2001). It is known (Kruchten, 2004) that conventional engineering practices cannot be simply mapped to software engineering without the engineer first understanding the nature of the software, and we contend the same applies to Web engineering. This article proposes a systematic approach to identify and elaborate the characteristics that make Web engineering a unique discipline, and considers the implications of these characteristics. The rest of the article is organized as follows. We first outline the background and related work necessary for the discussion that follows, and state our position in that regard. This is followed by a model to uniquely posit the nature of Web applications based on the dimensions of project, people, process, product, and resources. Next, challenges and directions for future research are outlined. Finally, concluding remarks are given.