A Requirements Framework for Novice
Web Developers
WERE 2010, Sydney, Australia
Sheridan Jeary, Keith Phalp, Lai Xu and
Paul de Vrieze
Motivation
• I needed a method for teaching
• Large number of development methods
• Survey results
• Methods rarely used.
• Literature has a number of conclusions
• Little empirical work
Development methods and
requirements
• Many methods are weak in requirements
• Assume the developer already has them before
development begins
• No details about how to obtain them
• Need for a new taxonomy of requirements that
can be linked to business issues.
Previous study
• Web development methods are difficult to use
• Formality and ambiguity of terminology
• Methods often incomplete
• There are missing or confusing instructions
• Assume method user has same perspective as method
author
• Methods are complicated
• Lack of detailed practical guidance
Requirements framework
creation
• An initial template
• Final year undergraduates on ‘sandwich’ BSc
degrees BIT and CIT
• One year in industry
• Novice developers
Requirements Framework
• What is the site for?
• To provide a community?
• To increase company visibility?
• To provide a new business model?
• To provide information?
• To make money?
• Who are the target audience?
• How will you find this out? What problems are there to doing this?
• What are the expected types? What are the requirements of each type?
• Who are the stakeholder audience?
….
• High Level Content Analysis
• Who is providing the content?
• Marketing analysis and planning
• What are the expected visitor numbers and types
• Product releases etc
• Who owns it?
• What about copyright?
• How often does it need updating?
• Who will update it?
…
•
Security implications?
•
For different revenue models
•
For different audience types
•
Sensitive information
•
Timescale
•
What is required by when?
•
Technical issues
•
Hosting requirements
•
Development environment
•
Language
Specification
•
Identify audience types using:
•
Statement of purpose
•
Market research
•
High level target audience identification
•
Write scenarios for each audience type
•
From scenarios identify information requirements
•
From scenarios identify functions they will need to
complete
•
Identify audience structure linking similar
Evaluation (1)
• 45 students used
• 569 comments
• 257 related to framework categories
• Requirements gathering had 121 comments from 33
students
• Actions:
• Clarify the meaning of some categories
• Additional categories to be added
Evaluation (2)
• Web development using the framework by 7
students
• Plus points – simplicity, flexibility and ease of
use
• Negative points – simplicity, flexibility, ease
of use!!
Spare slides
WERE 2010, Sydney, Australia
Sheridan Jeary,Keith Phalp, Lai Xu and
Paul de vrieze
Features of web
development projects
• User domain
• Developer domain
• Environment domain
Features of web development
projects
User domain
Domain Difference Source User domain The user is divorced from the development and may not be engaged
with the process
[8] There is no traditional entry or exit point to or from web pages
causing user disorientation
[9] The technology is more visible to the user [10] There is a high reliance on the user interface [10] The non-functional requirements may be primary [8] There is volatility in requirements [10] Because of the unpredictable publishing environment users blame the
site when the Internet does not work
Is web development different?
Developer domain
Domain Difference Source
Developer The development team contains graphic designers, marketers etc. with different disciplinary emphasis
[8, 11]
Developers suffer from cognitive overload [13] Developers are not experienced. They are also difficult to use as a
resource in estimation
[1, 14]
There is uncertainty in the developer domain [10] There are rapidly changing technology and tools [10, 15] There is a lack of useful methods [15] Development methods are written for computer scientists and not
web developers
[16]
Features of web development
projects
Is web development different?
Environmental domain
Domain Difference Source Environment The linkage between the business architecture and the technical
design is tighter than conventional software systems
[10] Web sites are like magazines, particularly in the design of the
information structure
[11] The web development environment has shorter life cycles, aggressive
release demands and shorter time frames for initial delivery
[11] Web-development is hype driven [1] Web development is immature [1] The web development often changes the business model [10] The development is of a sophisticated business model, and both a
complex and component based information architecture
[10] The web is a highly competitive, market environment [10] Web development involves fine grained evolution and maintenance [10]
Features of web development
projects
The study
• Self selecting 4
th
year BSc Business
Information Technology students
• Dissertation project
• Not computer scientists but technical
• High pressure development environment
• Three methods
The study – the results
• 13 decided not to use a web development
method
• 8 used part of a web development method
• 1 used a web development method for the
