Exploring web-based information system design: A discrete-stage methodology and the corresponding model

Abstract

After the enormous success of WWW platform, a great number of enterprise systems have web-based components. Although they are built using current technological treads, they often fail to provide the desired performance. A potential cause is that, design related problems, as application modeling, resource allocation and replication, network configuration and performance evaluation, although interrelated are solved in isolation. We, thus, argue that a concise methodology for effectively designing web-based information systems offers considerable capabilities. Four discrete stages, each of them addressing a specific issue, and their dependencies are identified. We also propose a common model for the representation of system entities throughout all design stages. UML-like notation was used as a visual tool for graphical representation of model components. Since the modelling scheme is extendable, the adaptation of UML constructs simplifies the process of extending or customizing the model. A case study where the proposed methodology was used for the design a complex enterprise system and the experience obtained are also presented. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.