The Pro‘s and Con‘s of
Employing the Unified
Process for Web-Based
Applications
Renate Motschnig
University of Vienna
Department of Computer Science and Business
Informatics
Research Goals and Interests


Develop a process model for the
effective development of high-quality
web-applications
Primary process-model
requirements:
• Provide guidance yet sufficient room for
individual solutions
• Provide tool support
• Respect special features of Webapplications
Is the Unified Process qualified



…from the point of view of our
experience…
Case Study – UniKid
(http://www.univie.ac.at/unikid)
• Social Web-application
• … as source for examples
Other case studies
Overview

IS the UP helpful in developing webapplications?
• Special features of web-applications
• Brief survey of Unified Process
• Which features are helpful?
• What is missing?
• Conclusions
• Further work
Web-Application


A web-application is a web-system (website) that allows its users to execute
business logic with a web-browser.
(Conallen, 1999).
… User input affects the state of the
“business“…
A web-application provides a webinterface to an information- or knowledge
management system. (Motschnig)
Web-Application - Characteristics


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Rich content, structure essential
Navigation is essential
Design for maintenance and change
Often:
• Very diverse user profiles
• integration of legacy systems

Interfaces
• Peak interaction
• …
Unified Process


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Generic Process Template
Needs to be customized and
instantiated
Characteristics:
• Iterative and incremental
• Architecture-centric
• Use-Case Driven
Language (UML) integration and tool
support
Overview of the UP
UniKid – Deliverables of the Inception Phase
Deliverable of Inception phase
1. Iteration
2. Iteration
Feature list
started
Refined
First version of a business or domain Model
existed to some reflected in glossary
degree
First cut of Use-Case Model
done
Refined
First cut of Analysis Model
-
Done
optionally: Implementation/Test model
-
test of use-cases planned
First version of supplementary requirements
done
Continued
First draft of candidate architecture description with views of individual models
concept for software and content architecture
Optional: proof-of-concept prototype
-
only for DB-module
Initial risk list
done
Updated
Use-Case ranking list
-
two priorities assigned
Beginnings of a plan for the entire project
very rudimentary
Done
First draft of business case
for first phase only Done
Time schedule, duration
1.5 days
6 weeks
Use-Cases
search child-care
Inception
look for information
sitting partnership
User
mail contribution
Editor
publish contribution
perform statistics
enquire and maintain information
forward information
adapt and evolve system
Member of university
(1) process inputlist
(2) edit ad
(1.1) publish ad from inputlist
(1.2) update or delete ad from
inputlist
(3) delete ad
timer
Ads of users not having
authorization from the
university must be
explicitly published/
/deleted/updated v...
(4) update ad
(5) enquiry
User
Editor
(6) inspect sample ad
(7) print ad
(8) inspect list of deleted ads
Member of
University
(11) undelete
(9) perform statistics
(12) update samole ad
(10) authentification
(10.1) authentification
via editorial
(10.2) UniversityDB
authentification
UniversityDBs
First Cut on System Architecture
Relational
Database
Parent2Parent
service
Content
Provision
Web-Application
Server
Contacts and
Discussion
Complement to the Deliverables of the Inception
Phase for Web-Applications
Activity / Deliverable
1. Iteration
2. Iteration
Initial collection of content
material
started
continued, organized
in a physical folder
along topics
Analysis of information
available on the internet
discussed
documented
systematically
Initial documentation of
relevant links
listing only done in brief to be
complemented
Initial ideas on graphic layout
and user interface
-
discussed,
documented in notes
Overview of the UP revisited
Deliverables of the Elaboration Phase
Deliverable
Handling of deliverable
Preferably a complete business (or domain) model
which describes the context of the system
not further refined
New version of all models (complete between 10% 80%):
use-case
analysis
design
deployment, implementation
done, also activity
diagrams
done for Parent2Parent
package
partly, for complex usecases
-
Executable architectural baseline
basic, high-level
navigation
Architecture description
done wrt. system- and
content structure
Updated risk list
done, no new risks found
Project plan for the construction and transition phases
refined
Completed business case
done as one of the first
tasks
Time schedule, duration
6 weeks
Complements to Deliverables of the
Elaboration Phase for Web-Applications
Deliverable or aspect:
The way it was dealt with:
concept and specification of graphic layout
done and presented as
prototype
user interaction and navigation design
specified in class diagrams
and in story-board-like
diagrams
page structure view
done as skeletons in
HTML
prototype of user interface (or its update)
done and tested briefly
concept for information update (e.g. html-editor, webeditor, etc.)
decided
means of interconnection with other web-sites (e.g. links,
frames )
decided
strategy for authorization
specified in activity
diagrams
Construction Phase
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Basically refinement and
implementation of DB and interfaces
2 increments:
• Use - cases for user view
• Use – cases for editor view
Testing

Use-Case driven
• Detailed specification of use-cases
including all alternative scenarios
proved very worthwhile
• Many “errors“ and inconsistencies found

Navigation path driven – for content
issues
UP features found helpful:
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Customization of process template
Tool and UML
Thoughtful suggestion of deliverables per
phase, UML diagrams (Use-Case, Class,..)
Iterative and incremental proceeding
Management workflow:
• risk reduction,
• planning aspects
• initial and final business case
The UP does not support:

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Graphic-layout considerations
Content issues like acquisition,intuitive
naming, structure, design decisions
Navigation design
Interaction design (good tools available)
INTEGRATION of graphic, content and
software techical issues within process
• They are highly interdependent, need
coordination
What needs to be added?
Content
Web-Applikation
Software aspects
Graphic-layout
Missing:
O.K. with specialization:
Missing:
Acquisition
Structuring
Interlinking
Navigation
Integration
Maintenance
•Special NFR
•Usability
•Design for change
•Performance, …
•Special architecture
Page structure
Look and feel
Integration with
content and
user-interaction
…and a sensible integration of these workflows!!!
Conclusions


UP: highly valuable process template
Supporting:
• useful set of deliverables, incremental process
• Language – process – tool integration
• Management issues, risk reduction

For full support, the UP needs to be
complemented, in particular wrt.
• Content and Graphics workflow
• Navigation design (also diagramming
technique required)
• Integration of these workflows into the process
Related and Further Work

Content structuring concepts
• Organize complexity

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Navigation design with templates
Role of the web in knowledge
construction, cooperative learning,
organizational learning – as a complement
to face-to-face meetings.
… in order to use New Media to
improve communication and problemsolving