Hypermedia systems development practices: a survey <s> Michael Lang, National University of Ireland, Galway <s> The workshop would assess the problems of Web-based application systems development, argue the need for Web Engineering approach for developing scalable, quality, large-scale Web-based systems. It would also identify key Web Engineering activities and propose approaches and methods for systematic development of Webbased applications. Further, it would review ongoing work in this area, discuss case studies and best practices, and pave directions further work. <s> BIB001 </s> Hypermedia systems development practices: a survey <s> Michael Lang, National University of Ireland, Galway <s> Despite the existence of software engineering methods for hypermedia development, this process is not as systematic as it could be expected and, in fact, the "hypermedia software crisis" still remains. This situation can be attributed to the scarce dissemination of methods for hypermedia. In this context, we present our experience teaching a software engineering method for hypermedia, called Ariadne, which is used to develop hypermedia applications following a user-centered approach. <s> BIB002 </s> Hypermedia systems development practices: a survey <s> Michael Lang, National University of Ireland, Galway <s> Today Web-related software development seems to be faced with a crisis not unlike the one that occurred a generation ago when in the 70s computer hardware experienced an order of magnitude increase in computational power. While this made possible the implementation of a new class of applications larger both in size and complexity, the methods for software development available at that time were not able to scale up to such large projects. The "software crisis" was a fact with its legendary stories of delays, unreliability, maintenance bottlenecks and costs. <s> BIB003
Brian Fitzgerald, University of Limerick Accordingly, merely calling a system "Webbased" doesn't necessarily imply that its software design differs much from that of a traditional system. Only when Web-based systems assume hypermedia functionality do they become substantively different from a design perspective. Hypermedia technologies support much richer user interfaces, more complex navigation mechanisms, and more varied forms of information than traditional computer systems (see the related sidebar). In recent years, hypermedia systems (particularly Web-based ones) have grown in complexity and scope as they've begun to involve critical organizational activities such as customer support, sales and marketing, and technical support. So, issues similar to those encountered in traditional development have emerged, such as how to manage requirements, control development processes, coordinate collaborative design, and effectively manage projects. Due to hypermedia developers' apparent lack of discipline and the technologies' ostensible newness and dynamism, some authors have expressed concern about the delivered systems' quality. Thus another episode of the hackneyed "software crisis" debate has commenced, as critics draw analogies between hypermedia systems development now and the general state of practice back in the 1960s: BIB002 BIB003 Hypermedia development is currently at the stage software development was at thirty years ago. Most hypermedia applications are developed using an ad hoc approach. There is little understanding of development methodologies, measurement, and evaluation techniques, development processes, application quality, and project management … We are potentially about to suffer a hypermedia crisis. 6 success is tenuous, critics blame this alleged crisis on the lack of discipline. Charges of malpractice abound in the academic literature: BIB003  In many cases, the development approaches used for Web-based systems have been ad hoc, reminiscent of early days of application software development…Overall, software development for the Web lacks rigor and a systematic approach. BIB001 However, scant objective evidence supports such claims. Thus far, little wide-scale empirical research into hypermedia systems development has been done; to our knowledge, the mainstream literature includes only four surveys of hypermedia development prior to this one. 2,9-11 So, we decided to find out if the above assertions accurately reflect the reality of practice.