Software for the changing e-business

Abstract

In this article, we first acknowledge the requirements for more rapid and costefficient development cycles and systems evolution for e-business software applications. Thereafter, we discuss the contemporary solutions used to meet the requirements. These include technological and organizational innovations, as well as commoditization. After that, we discuss attributes of modification of an e-business application, i.e. the depth of modification, the sophistication of the modification method, operational continuity, and freedom from errors. These attributes are combined into a framework that is then used to evaluate four common e-commerce applications, a spreadsheet application and a novel dynamic e-commerce platform, also presented in this article. The dynamic ecommerce platform is proposed to be the most favorable solution in cases where system specifications change frequently. © 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers.