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Web site development work is a growing aspect of the IT activities within many organizations. However, the skills and knowledge required by IT practitioners for successful Web site development are still largely uncertain. This paper examines the results of a research exercise involving case studies in 20 UK organizations aimed at investigating: 1. the skills and knowledge that are required for Web site development work, 2. how such skills and knowledge are used in actual practice, and 3. the mechanisms by which such skills and knowledge can be acquired and improved.
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Keywords
World Wide Web, Skills, Design and development, Web sites, Software industry
Abstract
Web site development work is a growing aspect of the IT activities within many organisations. However, the skills and knowledge required by IT practitioners for successful Web site development are still largely uncertain. In this paper we examine the results of a research exercise involving case studies in 20 UK organisations aimed at investigating: the skills and knowledge that are required for Web site development work, how such skills and knowledge are used in actual practice, and the mechanisms by which such skills and knowledge can be acquired and improved.
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Introduction
The rapid growth in the use of the World Wide Web for commercial purposes has been noted by many researchers (Cheung, 1998; Maes et al., 1999; Vidgen, 1998). The strengthening of a company's competitive position may often be the justification for a company to develop a Web site (Loughlin, 1999). Watkins and Marenka (1995) commented that the Internet can allow a small company to project a corporate presence equal to that of a much larger firm. The increasing amount of Web site development work being carried out in organisations, implies that such work should be carried out in a competent, professional manner. It is therefore important to understand what skills and knowledge are required for successful Web site development work, how such skills and knowledge are used in actual practice, and to determine how such skills and knowledge can be improved. Seffah (1999) stated that in the face of a growing software industry labour shortage and rapidly changing technology, effective continuing education can help organisations develop and retain accomplished software developers.
Gellersen and Gaedke (1999), Aoyama (1998), and Russo and Graham (1998) argued that the delivery of applications in the Web environment is radically different from the usual ways of delivering software, and imposes a completely different structure and approach on application development. Russo and Graham (1998) stated that Web applications differ from traditional information systems in terms of the purpose and audience for which they are developed, their use of communications technology and multiplatform accessibility and their non-sequential nature, due to their reliance on hypertext links to other Web documents. Morris and Hinrichs (1996) commented upon the new design skills required for Web site design over the traditional systems design skills. These included an increased understanding of interaction and information handling, in particular navigation and pluralistic design. However, Morris and Hinrichs (1996) did not actually investigate the design skills required for Web site design in actual commercial/ industrial practice. Pressman (1998) argued that as well as involving new design skills, Web-based development projects also typically involve shorter development times and product life cycles. In this paper the results of a research exercise involving case studies in 20 UK organisations concerning the skills and knowledge required for Web site development work are examined.
Literature review
There has been a limited amount of research examining particular individual activities, skills and knowledge that are involved in particular aspects of Web site development work.
However, there has been little if any research into the full range of skills and knowledge potentially required for a Web site development project, and the mechanisms by which such skills and knowledge are acquired and improved. This is the originality of the research reported in this paper. This research extends current academic knowledge by examining and classifying the full range of skills and knowledge that Web site developers may be called upon to use, and the mechanisms by which Web site developers can acquire and improve such skills and knowledge.
Gellersen and Gaedke (1999) had stated that requirements analysis is an important aspect of Web development projects in terms of content, structure, access and corporate identity, but had not examined the skills and knowledge required. Conallen (1999) had stated that since Web-based applications execute business logic, the most important models of a Web-based system should focus on the business logic, not on presentation details. However, Conallen (1999) had not examined how business modelling for Web-based applications is typically done in actual commercial/industrial practice.
Niederst (1996) had commented on the need for Web designers to have an understanding of the human computer interface issues of Web site design including navigation, function and graphics, but had not investigated how such an understanding could be developed in practice. Wan and Chung (1998) argued that Web site designers need to have navigational design skills, in order to avoid producing messy Web sites, but had not investigated how such skills could be developed. Palmer and Griffith (1998) had commented upon the need for Web site designers to understand both the marketing and technical issues of Web site design, but had not examined the skills and knowledge required for such understanding.
Cintron (1999) had commented upon the wide range of Web development tools that are available for Web development projects, and the need for Web developers to know several of these, but had not investigated their use in actual practice. Horowitz (1998) stated that migrating software to the World Wide Web requires a thorough understanding of systems architecture design principles in order to determine what will be executed on the client and server sides and what communication between client and server will occur. Sneed and Goschl (2000) argued that a higher degree of testing skills is required for Web based applications than for client/server
and conventional stand-alone systems. Quan et al. (1999) commented upon the range of technical skills required for Webbased application development, but had not actually investigated the skills and knowledge required in actual commercial/industrial practice.
Stroud (1998) had identified the need for organisations to develop guidelines to assist IT staff using Web development tools, and Nielsen (1999) and Stroud (1998) had commented upon the need to train more people in Web site design skills. However, neither of these researchers had investigated the actual mechanisms that could be used for developing the skills and knowledge required for Web site development activities.
Research method
The research method used for this research exercise was case study. Yin (1994) defined the case study approach in the following manner: "A case study is an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real life context, when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident, and in which multiple sources of evidence are used". Case studies allow explanations of particular phenomena derived from empirical research which may be valuable in other settings and organisations as interpretations of phenomena, but which are not wholly predictive for future situations (Walsham, 1995). Cavaye (1996) argued that statistical generalisation to a population is not the goal of case study research, as cases are not sampling units; rather theoretical or analytical generalisation is appropriate where case study results can be used to develop theory. The case study approach has been fully justified by Gummesson (1991).
The research techniques used for the research exercise reported in this paper included interviews, discussions, observation, document collection, and literature reviews. Darke et al. (1998) stated that case studies typically combine data collection techniques such as interviews, observations, questionnaires and document and text analysis. Silverman (1998) noted the predominance of interview-based studies in the area of information systems research. Darke et al. (1998) stated that case study research is the most widely used qualitative research method for information systems research and is well suited to such research. In addition multiple case studies allow cross-case analysis and comparison, and the investigation of a particular phenomenon in diverse settings (Darke et al., 1998). The multiple case study technique differs from the survey technique in that case studies involve more open-ended questioning and the use of additional sources of evidence such as relevant documentation and observation of staff carrying out their duties.
The 20 organisations studied were all based in the North-west region of England. The organisations selected already had well established links with the university for which the authors work either through industrial student placements or through consultancy contracts. Contact was made with the organisations studied via the established contact persons) within each organisation. There were no particular inclusion or exclusion criteria used for the companies selected. The potential benefit of the research exercise for the organisations studied was that "best practice" from the industrial experience of the authors and from other organisations studied could be shared, subject to confidentiality requirements.
In each of the 20 organisations studied, one or more IT staff involved in Web site development within the IT department were interviewed, and examples of Web site development documentation were examined, where these were available. The job titles of those interviewed in the 20 organisations studied included analyst programmer, Web developer, computer technician, and IT officer, amongst others. Case studies based on personal contact are particularly appropriate for investigating IT practice. It is a holistic approach and helps overcome the problems of terminology and verification that bedevil the use of questionnaires. A primary weakness of case studies, however, is the time-consuming nature of case study investigation for the researcher. Also it is disruptive for the organisation studied, and this makes it difficult to obtain the necessary co-operation. The main difficulty encountered in this research project was gaining access to the organisation studied. There is a trade-off when undertaking case study research between considering a wide number of organisations or a small number in more detail. Since this research project aimed to uncover the full range of skills required for Web site development work, rather than concentrate on particular skills required (as had been done to a limited extent by previous researchers), studying a wide number of organisations was the most appropriate means of examining the full range of skills required. The approach adopted was also useful for determining the differences in the skills and knowledge required for Web site development work between organisations.
In particular this research sought to examine the following research topics.
Web site development skills and knowledge required
* What skills and knowledge are required for Web site development work?
* How are these different from the skills and knowledge required for other types of IT development?
Use of Web site development skills and knowledge in actual practice
* Why are such skills and knowledge needed for Web site development work?
* How are the different types of skills and knowledge required actually used in Web site development work?
Development of Web site development skills and knowledge
* How are the skills and knowledge required for Web site development work acquired?
* How can the skills and knowledge for Web site development work be improved?
* How do organisations actively improve the Web site development skills and knowledge of their IT staff?
Web site development management
* How do organisations organise Web site development activities and how does this affect the skills and knowledge required for Web site development work?
* What standards/policies/best practice guides for Web site development are used within organisations and how does this affect the skills and knowledge required for Web site development work?
Research results
Web site development skills and knowledge required
When the IT practitioners within the 20 organisations studied were interviewed with regard to the skills and knowledge required for Web site development work, a wide range of skills and knowledge emerged as shown in Figure 1. All the IT practitioners interviewed stated that a range of skills and knowledge was required for Web site development work. However, 80 per cent of the IT practitioners identified technical skills and knowledge as being of primary importance when compared to the other skills required. The other 20 per cent of the IT practitioners interviewed viewed business and analytical skills and knowledge as being of equal importance for Web site development work. The IT practitioners interviewed were not provided with an initial classification of Web site development skills and knowledge for selection, but were asked what skills and knowledge they perceived as being required for Web site development work. The responses were then later analysed and grouped by the authors to yield the
classification described in this paper as shown in Figure 1.
Technical skills
The IT practitioners interviewed in the 20 organisations studied identified a range of technical skills and knowledge that they considered necessary for Web site development activities. These typically included: the design of Web sites, and in particular navigational design and graphic design; programming skills in Web site development tools (as can be seen from Table I a variety of Web site development tools were in use across the 20 organisations researched); testing skills; and debugging skills. Twenty per cent of the IT practitioners interviewed viewed back end database skills, and the skills and knowledge associated with the linking of Web pages to back end databases as important technical skills required for Web site development. These were in the two retail organisations, and two of the financial services organisations studied.
As an example of the range of technical skills perceived as necessary for Web site development activities, the IT practitioners interviewed within an IT services organisation (which developed Web sites for client organisations) quoted a large variety of technical skills required for Web site development within their organisation. These included: ability to program in HtML, Dreamweaver and Flash; ability to design Web sites to cater for different Internet browsers (and versions thereof) and different search engines and search directories; ability to debug Web site coding; ability to optimise Web site coding to improve performance.
Analytical skills
The main analytical skill required by Web site developers quoted by the IT practitioners interviewed was requirements analysis, in particular interpreting user requirements. An interesting finding of this research was that only two of the 20 organisations studied performed a cost-benefit analysis of Web site development projects. One was a small financial services organisation, and the other was an IT services company that performed a cost-benefit analysis of their clients' Web site development projects.
Business skills
The main business skills required for Web site development activities quoted by the IT practitioners interviewed were a knowledge of business terminology and business procedures. For example, in the tourism organisations studied, the IT practitioners interviewed stated that they needed to understand the terminology associated with call centre and hotel booking operations, and to understand the basics of direct marketing terminology and operation.
Understanding the legislation related to Web site development was quoted by the IT staff interviewed in one of the financial services organisations and the two retail organisations studied. The IT staff in the financial services organisations stated that they needed to understand the impact of the UK Data Protection Act 1998 upon the personal data handled by their organisation's Web site. The IT staff in the two retail organisations studied stated the need to be aware of the legislation relating to consumer protection for Web site development work.
The IT staff from all the different types of organisations studied regarded technical skills as necessary for Web site development work. The equal importance of business skills for Web site development work was stated by those interviewed in the two retail organisations, one of the financial services organisations, and the tourism organisation studied. The importance of legislation in Web site development work was only mentioned by those interviewed in the two retail organisations and one of the financial services organisations studied.
Comparing Web site and classic IT skills requirements
Based upon the responses from those IT practitioners interviewed in the 20 organisations studied, the differences between the skills and knowledge required for Web site development work compared to other types of IT work appeared to be the following.
First, Web site development involves the use of different types of development tools compared to other types of IT systems. Although Java and its derivatives were perceived as being similar to C++ which is used for other types are IT systems, HTML and utilities for generating HTML such as MS Frontpage, Hotmetal and Dreamweaver were perceived to have a different basis compared to the tools used for other types of IT systems. Animation tools such as Flash were perceived as quite clearly different from the tools used for other types of IT systems.
Another aspect of the skills and knowledge relating to Web site development tools that appeared different from the tools used for other types of IT systems was that Web site development projects appeared to often require the use of a number of development tools. Multiple development tool use on a single project was perceived as being less common for other types of IT systems by those interviewed.
In design terms, Web site development appeared to be generally perceived as requiring more presentation and navigation design skills than other types of IT systems. This appeared to be due to the greater level of information and information structure in a Web-based system, as well as the lesser functionality typically offered by most Web-based systems when compared to other types of IT systems.
Testing of Web-based systems was perceived as being different from the testing required for other types of IT systems due to the generally more complex navigational structures
encountered in Web-based systems, and the need to cater for the different Internet browsers/navigators and versions thereof. Testing that an organisation's Web site could easily be found by the various Internet search engines was seen as a completely new skill in the IT services, retail, tourism and financial services organisations studied, all of which conducted such testing.
Use of Web site development skills and knowledge in practice
The IT practitioners interviewed in the 20 organisations studied indicated that the design of Web sites involved a number of facets. In particular the need for a clear navigational structure between Web pages, and the importance of graphics in Web site design were stated by the vast majority of those interviewed. The use of skills and knowledge relating to the inclusion of video in Web sites was encountered in only two of the 20 organisations studied, the pharmaceutical company and one of the IT services companies. The use of Web site animation skills and knowledge was encountered in only one of the organisations studied, the IT services company previously mentioned,
that had two specialist Web developers who were skilled in the use of the Flash animation tool.
Those IT practitioners interviewed in the financial services sector organisations tended to stress the design issues relating to security more than those from other sectors. The financial services and retail sector IT practitioners also viewed legislation as being of more relevance to Web site development generally than those from other sectors. For example, the IT practitioners interviewed in one of the financial services organisations researched stated that their organisation spent much effort analysing the UK Data Protection Act 1998 with regard to how this applied to them allowing selected organisations and individuals to access personal account details via the company Web site. As another example, the IT staff in one of the retail sector organisations studied stated the possibility of legal action by customers against the company if misrepresentation of goods or services has occurred via the company's Web site. For example, if a purchase is made via the company's Web site at one point in time (based on the Web site information provided), but the goods delivered to the customer are different to those ordered, due to the Web site information being out of date, or incorrect, or the Web site information having changed in that time period, then the customer may consider that misrepresentation has occurred. One solution to this problem is to keep an audit trail of the information displayed on the company's
Web site, as was adopted by the retail company in question.
The case studies at the two retail organisations studied revealed that care has to be taken to ensure that possible terminology and legal differences between countries are catered for when developing a Web site. For example a term used in one country to describe a product may mean something different in another country, and taxes added to prices may apply in some countries and not in others. There may also be different advertising standards that apply to advertisements on the Internet in different countries. For example, advertisements from the UK on the Internet should comply with the British Code of Advertising and Sales Promotion. Knowledge of legislation/regulation across borders was viewed as important by those interviewed in the two retail companies studied, but was not mentioned in any of the other 18 organisations studied.
Development of Web site development skills and knowledge
Virtually all the IT practitioners (95 per cent) interviewed in the 20 organisations studied commented that actual hands-on experience of Web site development activities was the most appropriate method for developing Web site development skills and knowledge. Fleig and Schneider (1998) argued that besides theoretical knowledge, experience is of major importance for competent action within the IT profession.
Of the IT practitioners interviewed, 90 per cent viewed short courses as a useful mechanism for gaining some of the technical skills and knowledge associated with Web site development, in particular programming skills in a relevant Web site development tool. However, only a third of those interviewed had been sent on such a course by the organisation that they worked for. Within the 20 organisations studied, it appeared that the likelihood of IT staff receiving formal Web development training courses was independent of the size of the organisation they worked for. Russo and Graham (1998) noted that few Web site developers receive formal training in Web site development tools/languages. Eighteen (1999) commented that most organisations appear to view IT training as a cost rather than an investment.
Of the IT practitioners interviewed, 20 per cent quoted relevant higher education courses such as computer studies degrees as a potential means of gaining basic Web site development skills. However, none of those interviewed who had undertaken a higher education course in computing felt that their course had prepared them adequately for Web site development work. Only the two higher education establishments out of the 20 organisations studied actually supported their IT staff in obtaining higher education qualifications relevant to Web site development work.
Regular use of technical manuals as a source of knowledge for Web site development activities was quoted by 10 per cent of the IT practitioners interviewed. The majority of the remaining IT practitioners stated that they made occasional reference to relevant technical manuals. Viewing other organisations' Web sites for design (and in some cases code) ideas was quoted by roughly a third of those interviewed as a mechanism for developing technical Web site development skills and knowledge.
Seeking knowledge from experienced Web site development staff was quoted as a useful mechanism for developing Web site
development skills and knowledge by roughly a quarter of the IT practitioners interviewed. However, only five of the 20 organisations studied had formal mentoring schemes for IT staff involved in Web site development activities. Scherer (2000) commented that work process knowledge can neither be bought nor constructed but has to be generated and developed by co-operation and communication throughout engagement within a work process.
Across the 20 organisations studied, technical Web site development skills appeared to be developed using a variety of mechanisms. However the business and analytical skills required for Web site development work appeared to be developed mainly by a combination of hands-on experience and instruction from more experienced IT staff. Table II shows the different mechanisms that were used for developing Web site skills and knowledge across the 20 organisations studied, and which of those mechanisms were formally supported by the organisations in question. Table I shows those organisations that provided technical Web site development short courses for their IT staff and those that had a formal monitoring scheme for Web site development staff.
Regarding the longer-term development of the full range of skills and knowledge required for Web site development work, the case studies indicated that technical short courses and technical manuals were perceived as being useful initially to develop the basic technical skills required. The technical skills and knowledge required could then be developed by hands-on experience, Web site documentation (where available), viewing other Web sites, and instruction from more experienced IT staff. The analytical and business skills required for Web site development were generally perceived as taking longer to develop, and being gained mainly by hands-on experience and instruction from more experienced IT staff.
In terms of providing development opportunities for Web site development staff, all the Web site development short courses attended by those interviewed had been run by external training agencies. The technical manuals that had been used, had been supplied by the relevant Web site development tool vendors. However, the hands-on experience, Web site documentation (where available) and experienced Web site development staff used were all internal to the IT departments studied.
Web site development management
Overall, 50 per cent of the organisations studied had separate Web site developer roles within their IT departments as shown in Table I. Separate Web site developer roles (meaning that such staff undertook only Web site development work) were encountered not only in the larger IT departments, but also in the medium sized (> = ten IT staff < 100) and even small IT departments (< ten IT staff). This appeared to indicate that the organisations concerned viewed Web site development activities in general as being distinct from other IT activities. The Web site development staff within the 20 organisations studied were not specialised into different Web site development activities such as Web site analysis, design, or coding. However, there was specialisation of Web site development staff in certain Web site development tools such as Flash and ASP within seven of the organisations studied as shown in Table I. This appeared to confirm the perception of the IT staff interviewed, that technical Web site development skills were regarded as being of a higher priority than the other skills required for Web site development work by those organisations studied.
The IT practitioners interviewed in the six organisations that had Web site development standards/policies/best practice guides (as shown in Table I) stated that they found such standards/policies/best practice guides useful for providing a framework for Web site development projects. Gellersen and Gaedke (1999), Gunter et al. (2000), Wiegers (1999) and Russo and Graham (1998) stated that the development of Web applications is still mostly ad hoc. Gellersen and Gaedke (1999) also commented that there is no rigorous systematic approach to Web site development, and that most current Web application development and management practices rely on the knowledge and experience of individual developers. Reference to documentation from previous Web development projects was mentioned in only two of the 20 organisations studied, one of the IT services organisations, and the local government organisation. Lin and Hendersonsellers (1998) had commented upon the lack of documentation associated with Web development projects.
Conclusions
In this paper the skills and knowledge required for Web site development activities has been examined based on case studies in 20 UK organisations. The main conclusions from this research exercise were:
* There are a wide variety of skills and knowledge required for Web site development activities.
* Although technical Web site development skills and knowledge appeared to be perceived by the majority of the IT practitioners interviewed as being the most
important for Web development projects, business and analytical skills and knowledge were also considered necessary for Web site development work within a fifth of the organisations studied.
There are numerous mechanisms for improving the skills and knowledge required for Web site development work. However, hands-on experience of Web site development work and relevant technical short training courses appear the most appropriate.
* A particular aspect of this research project relevant to educational institutions and training agencies was that all the short courses mentioned by those interviewed were technical Web site development courses. Short courses in the business and analytical aspects of Web site development work should be developed and promoted by such institutions and agencies in order to provide opportunities for current and future web development staff to develop their capabilities in these areas.
* None of the IT practitioners interviewed within the 20 organisations studied mentioned academic literature or standards bodies as a useful source of knowledge for Web site development activities. Academic institutions and standards bodies should do more to promote their work to the IT industry in the area of Web site development.
* The case studies appeared to indicate that organisations should consider developing frameworks/standards/best practice
guides in order to assist IT staff in Web development projects. The apparent lack of frameworks/standards/best practice guides for Web site development encountered in the 20 organisations studied appeared to confirm the views of the IT practitioners interviewed that hands-on experience was the main approach to undertaking Web site development work, backed up by viewing other Web site for ideas, and consulting more experienced IT staff. Without the guidance of frameworks/standards/best practice guides, Web site development staff may develop poorly designed and coded Web sites which may not fully meet with organisational requirements, and may prove difficult to maintain in the future. Educational institutions and training agencies should develop courses which promote the use of frameworks and standards for Web site development work.
It is hoped that the results of this research exercise may be of benefit to organisations intending to develop the skills and knowledge of their Web development staff, and to training agencies and higher education establishments who cover Web site development in their courses.
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The authors
Mark J. Taylor is a Senior Lecturer, David England is Principal Lecturer, and David Gresty is a Lecturer, all in the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.
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