“crisis” or “wonderland”: an Appraisal of Hypermedia Systems Development Practice

With the advent and growth of the Web, hypermedia information systems have propagated within and beyond organisations. Much concern has been expressed about the quality of hypermedia systems being developed and the apparent absence of disciplined development practices. There has been talk that the infamous “software crisis” is afflicting hypermedia systems development, allegedly characterised by shoddy project management, inadequate requirements analysis and planning, and ad hoc “quick and dirty” development approaches. This paper reports on the findings of a survey of 438 organisations in Ireland, the objectives of which were to test the validity of assertions of a “hypermedia crisis”, and to explore what mechanisms if any are being used to guide and control hypermedia systems development. The preliminary conclusions are that hypermedia development is much more disciplined than popularly believed, and the state of practice is much healthier than depicted by many academic researchers.