Identifying commonalities in web content management system engineering

Abstract

PurposeThe main purpose of this paper is to improve a web content management system (WCMS) product line for future implementations by identifying software commonalities in WCMS‐based web applications. WCMS plays a central role in modern web application development: most large public and internal web sites are based on a WCMS foundation. If we can improve the implementation process, the effectiveness and efficiency of web application development will increase significantly.Design/methodology/approachThis research identifies reusable solutions from existing WCMS implementations using problem diagrams and structured goal modeling. From configurations were matched with atomic e‐business models by linking them to the strategic competencies through bottom‐up goal modeling. A designed method was constructed on how requirements can be elicited for WCMS implementations using goal modeling and problem frames.FindingsThe resulting method provides insight in relevant e‐business models and their relation to software product lines. Moreover, the approach is applied in a WCMS study which demonstrates its applicability.Practical implicationsThe practical implications of this research is twofold: WCMS developers now have a method to improve their product line based on e‐business models; and requirements engineers implementing WCMS can use this model to apply reusable software and prioritize requirements. Both will potentially have a large impact on the effectiveness of implementations since most web applications are developed with WCMS.Originality/valueThe paper presents a novel approach for efficient and effective identification of software commonalities. This research is part of the web engineering method that focuses on development of web applications based on WCMSs.