Hypermedia Process Modelling

As evidenced by the recent explosion of interest in the World Wide Web, the scope and complexity of hypermedia application are growing at a rapid rate. Despite this, the development of hypermedia applications is still largely ad hoc and poorly managed, often resulting in applications which are low quality and excessively expensive to develop and especially maintain. Although various hypermedia design models (such as HDM) and methods (such as RMM) have been developed, these have yet to be placed in the context of the overall development process, or to be widely adopted for commercial development. In this paper we consider the role of process modelling in improving this siutation. We look at problems with existing hypermedia development processes and the role which design tools, methods and models can play. We then go on to consider how descriptive process modelling can be used to model hypermedia development processes and subsequently identify potential flaws within these processes. This will in turn provide the mechanisms necessary for measuring and improving hypermedia development. The potential results are significantly more manageable, consistent and cost-effective development, and higher quality applications.