Innovations Through Information Technology 1251 Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. Can Current Web Development Methodologies Meet the Requirements of Today's Web Application Development? Simi K. Bajaj University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, 1719, NSW, Australia, Tel: +61-2-47360751, Fax: +61-2-47360770, k.bajaj@uws.edu.au Athula Ginige University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, 1719, NSW, Australia, Tel: +61-2-47360751, Fax: +61-2-47360770 ABSTRACT The development of complex web applications (WA) is usually ad-hoc. In this paper we have identified the required characteristics of today’s WA. The features of current web development methodologies have been listed. Finally comparing them with the required characteristics of WA does a review of current web development methodologies. INTRODUCTION Due to ever-changing needs, web applications do need to be modified and updated frequently. The development of web applications (WA) is a process, not a one-off event. The development of most of today’s WAs (excluding static web brochures) is complex and time consuming. The state of development of application today raises the question, whether our development methodologies are sufficient to cater the ever-growing needs of web application development (WAD). A sophisticated and disciplined approach toward WA development is needed, one that includes resolving various problems that accompany large-scale systems development. [3] REQUIREMENTS OF TODAY’S WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT Since today’s WA need to support the ever growing needs of businesses. There is need to identify what is it that need to be developed. What are the characteristics that should be present in the WA to be successful? Based on literature, we have identified that to produce a successful WA following requirements need to be met. A WA may possess few or more of these characteristics depending upon the requirement: • A defined architecture: The WA needs to deliver complex functionality. Architecture plays an important role in the overall functionality, usability, performance etc. Hence, a stable archi- tecture at all levels is required. • Reuse: It is important that WA provide a high degree of reusability (code and design) to speed up the application development process to match up the Internet speed. • Presentation: The overall look and feel of the application, the views by which the individual page can respond. • Functionality: This concern is a part of the page logic that specifies the set of server side operations to be performed upon receipt of a client request. • Usability: The WAD needs usability as the essential component. • Flexibility: WA need to be designed flexible in respect to data changes, online data management, dynamic data integration and multilingual concepts. • Customizability: WAs are typically required to be highly customizable and configurable to present the same business logic to different channels and/or user interfaces. • Scalability: WA need to be scalable to catch up with the growing speed of business in the world of competition. • Extensibility: The representation has to be easily extensible with new content. The representation style and the behaviour of the application have to be extensible as well. • Changeability: Content, representation style, and application behaviour should be changeable ad hoc. In principal, it should be possible to change the web-based application without stopping the web services. • Run-time performance: The users of the web have should be provided with quick response and performance. CURRENT WEB DEVELOPMENT METHODOLOGIES AND FEATURES There are numerous methods and techniques available for the development of WAs. This paper is focusing the methodologies for the WAD that provides a complete development process along with the models and techniques. For eg UML is an effective modelling technique, however it does not provide a step-wise process for the development of WA. The focus here is entirely on a complete solution to WAD. Dexter Model was developed in 1992 however very little literature on its usage was found. HDM [12] was developed first (1993); RMM [8] and OOHDM [13] came in 1995. Most of the recent methodologies for the WAD are built on top of the entity relationship model and Methodology Features HDM OOHDM RMM ARANEUS AUTOWEB ARCHITECTURE Two tier √ Three tier √ √ √ √ REUSE Plug-in components √ Reusable Presentation styles √ Application skeletons √ √ √ MODEL DRIVEN Structure/ Conceptual model √ √ √ √ √ Navigation model √ √ √ √ √ Presentation/Interface model √ √ √ √ PROTOTYPING √ √ PAGE GENERATION from Templates √ √ from Abstract specifications √ √ √ DATABASE DESIGN Generation of supporting database √ Mapping to legacy databases √ √ √ √ √