Product Description

This book systematically addresses the management and technical issues that arise when Web sites move from "brochureware" to sophisticated application deployment platforms. Web Site Engineering builds on the best software engineering principles, defining an enhanced new model for process-driven Web site development. It shows how Web sites are similar to traditional development projects -- and how to account for the substantial differences that remain. It provides systematic insight into the oft-neglected issues of Web site development, including problem definition, concept exploration, feasibility studies, testing, operation, maintenance -- and beyond. For all Web administrators, designers and MIS managers seeking to build and successfully manage sites with real content and real, business-critical applications.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1023775 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 324 pages

From the Back Cover

65092-9

Web site development grows up!

Web Site Engineering is the first book to systematically address the management, technical and operational issues that arise when Web sites become sophisticated application deployment platforms. It builds on hard-won software engineering principles, defining a new model for Web site development that delivers reliability, scalability and value without compromising speed.

Discover practical ways you can:

• Bring structure to Web, extranet, and intranet deployment
• Identify the real needs your site must answer
• Choose between client-side and server-side technologies
• Streamline the repurposing of existing content
• Systematically test site functionality, content, security, and usability
• Decide when to outsource -- and when not to

You'll gain new insight into the urgent issues that will make or break today's large, sophisticated sites. Discover how to cope with multiple browser environments, decide which new applications to deploy, and ensure adequate response times. Learn how to streamline maintenance through staging sites, database maintenance systems and other techniques. Make strategic decisions about deploying scripting languages, XML, Java, ActiveX and other technologies.

If you're responsible for managing a site with real content and business-critical applications, Web Site Engineering is the book you've been desperately waiting for.

About the Author

Thomas A. Powell is President of Powell Internet Consulting and Director of the Web Publishing Program at the University of California, San Diego.

Dominique Cutts is a project manager at Powell Internet Consulting.

David Jones is a project manager at Powell Internet Consulting.

Customer Reviews

Rehashed knowledge with no solid value
I've got to ferociously disagree with the other reviewers and hopefully I will stop somebody else buying the book on just their recommendations as I did. The book is an overview of how web site development should be attempted with a software engineering slant - and that's it. I expect more than an overview from a book costing this much. The only point the book makes is that Web development should be approached in the same manor as traditional development - thanks very much for that insight but I could of made that statement quite easily. The book provides no pratical approach to performing this approach with a Web development project, which is what I wanted. As soon as the book makes this statement it wanders off into all kinds of other areas such as Network performance and cross browser compatibility without really doing any of the subjects justice - and also debatable that they should be there in the first place. Before you buy I seriously recommend that you skim through the book in a bookshop.

Great Book
I have to say this is a very good book. It gives you a good guide of how to approach a web site project. I am a sort of beginner to this sort of stuff and found it helpful regardgin a place to start and to settle. I recommend this to any serious people thinking about starting a web site project.

Very good treatment of the web design/development process
This is an excellent book for web *developers* as well as web *designers*, since everyone working on web sites can benefit from understanding the larger process of web site design. If a person is looking for information on navigation devices, graphic accents, and the like, they might be disappointed here. However, if a person wants to learn the process of planning, building, testing, and launching a good solid web site, this book delivers.

Many people, myself included, have experience with so-called "vanity" sites - small to medium-small web sites that contain pictures of their family, writings by them or by family members, a genealogical record, or a miniature e-zine. Building larger web sites, especially in a professional setting, takes more planning than simply brainstorming at the computer (something that often works for vanity sites). Learning where to test a site, what to do in terms of planning the site, and the flow from one step in the process to the next is a part of a web developer's education that is sometimes overlooked (or people assume that you'll osmose this information while you're on the job).

The book describes the process in enough detail so that the reader clearly understands what happens at each stage, but not in so much detail that the reader is overwhelmed or the information is obscured. This is also one of the few books I have found to describe the entire process of web design and development instead of isolated bits and pieces, such as the coding, the graphics, the copy, the layout, or the back-end functionality. Don't be afraid to read this book if you're just learning to use FrontPage, or if you are only building web sites for fun right now - the overall process transfers over even if you are designing your first web site. (This will also give you an edge once you hit the professional market, since many people know how to do one little part of the web site but not many realise how to work with and plan for the other parts.)