The essence of web engineering : managing the diversity and complexity of web application development

Although everything has progressed rapidly in the Internet and Web arena, nothing has changed significantly in the way that most people develop Web sites and applications. Web-based systems and applications now deliver a complex array of content and functionality to many heterogeneous end users, and this trend will continue. Unfortunately, however, the practices that developers follow for Web application development today are as poor as they were when the Web was in its infancy. Many organizations and developers have successfully developed large, high-performance Web sites and applications, but others have failed or face the potential for major failures. The primary causes of these failures are a lack of vision, shortsighted goals, a flawed design and development process, and poor management of development efforts"”not technology. The way we address these concerns is critical to realizing the Web's full potential. The new Web engineering discipline deals with the process of developing Web-based systems and applications. The essence of Web engineering is to successfully manage the diversity and complexity of Web application development, and hence, to avoid potential failures that can have serious implications.