The Web Application Development Process

The current situation of ad hoc development of Web applications reminds us of the software development practices of the 1960s, before it was realized that the development of applications required more than programming expertise. This book counteracts this situation by giving a comprehensive, practice-oriented and thorough insight into the new discipline of Web Engineering. The text highlights the need to examine and re-use the body of knowledge found within software engineering. It demonstrates how to use that knowledge within the Web environment, in order to achieve a highly disciplined and methodological means of producing Web-based software, putting emphasize on current practices, experiences and pitfalls. The book demonstrates the distinctions between software engineering and Web engineering, for instance, the shorter lead times that Web engineering has compared to its software counterpart, whilst also demonstrating the rapid prototyping and agile methods of development needed to meet these criteria. The book covers important topics of Web Engineering, including requirements analysis, design, architectures, technologies, test, operation and maintenance; this is complemented by in-depth knowledge about Web project management and process issues as well as important quality aspects of Web applications like usability, performance and security. An overview of Semantic Web concepts points the way to the development of future Web applications.