Project Management and Web Software Engineering

The process involved with the development of Web applications is significantly different from the process of developing applications on older traditional platforms. This is a difference not only in technologies but in the overall business process and associated methodology, in other words the project management. Web applications generally manage content and not just data, and many Web applications are document centric versus data centric. In addition, there are many more people involved in the definition, design, development, testing, usage, and approval for Web applications. The pace of business life is much quicker today than in the past, thus Web applications need to be deployed much quicker than earlier IT applications and they need to be engineered for more flexibility and adaptability in terms of changing requirements, changing content, changing presentation, and perhaps mass user customization. In addition, security concerns are more prevalent in Web applications since the end users are outside as well as inside the corporate virtual perimeter. Web applications can serve a global audience and thus there are more diverse stakeholders for these applications. Issues such as language, culture, time zones, weights and measures, currency, and international standards need to be considered. This chapter examines the project management issues involved with Web applications.