Towards a Contingency Based Approach to Web Engineering

Abstract In this paper, we introduce our preliminary work in developing an analytic framework which allows us to contrast the problem of developing ‘web-like applications’ (WLAs) against our accumulated understanding of software systems development. The analytic framework will form a basis for the development of a contingent approach to selection of methods, tools and techniques, then integrating these within a suitable methodological process, for WLA development. This approach allows us to make use of our existing understanding of software engineering methodology, while alleviating the danger of relying on the consequences of assumptions within that literature which do not hold, or which hold imperfectly, in the domain of WLA development. We illustrate how our approach could provide structure for the analysis of the characteristics of the potential user base of a WLA vis-à-vis the user base for a conventional software system.