Web information system quality

Handbook of Research on
Web Information Systems
Quality
Coral Calero Muñoz
University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Ma Ángeles Moraga
University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Mario Piattini
University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Information science reference
Hershey • New York


Acquisitions Editor:
Development Editor:
Senior Managing Editor:
Managing Editor:
Copy Editor:
Typesetter:
Cover Design:
Printed at:

Kristin Klinger
Kristin Roth
Jennifer Neidig
Sara Reed
Lanette Ehrhardt, Susanna Svidunovich
Michael Brehm
Lisa Tosheff

Yurchak Printing Inc.

Published in the United States of America by
Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global)
701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Suite 200
Hershey PA 17033
Tel: 717-533-8845
Fax: 717-533-8661
E-mail:
Web site:
and in the United Kingdom by
Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global)
3 Henrietta Street
Covent Garden
London WC2E 8LU
Tel: 44 20 7240 0856
Fax: 44 20 7379 0609
Web site:
Copyright © 2008 by IGI Global. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or distributed in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without written permission from the publisher.
Product or company names used in this set are for identification purposes only. Inclusion of the names of the products or companies does
not indicate a claim of ownership by IGI Global of the trademark or registered trademark.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Handbook of research on Web information systems quality / Coral Calero, Ma Ángeles Moraga, and Mario Piattini, editors.
p. cm.
Summary: "This book integrates invaluable research on the models, measures, and methodologies of Web information systems, software
quality, and Web engineering into one practical guide to Web information systems quality, making this handbook of research an essential
addition to all library collections"--Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-59904-847-5 (hardcover) -- ISBN 978-1-59904-848-2 (ebook)
1. World Wide Web--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Information technology--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 3. Computer software--Quality
control--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 4. Application software--Development--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 5. Web services--Handbooks,
manuals, etc. I. Calero, Coral, 1968- II. Moraga, Ma Ángeles, 1979- III. Piattini, Mario, 1966TK5105.888.H362 2008
004.67'8--dc22
2007032032

British Cataloguing in Publication Data
A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.
All work contributed to this book set is original material. The views expressed in this book are those of the authors, but not necessarily of
the publisher.
If a library purchased a print copy of this publication, please go to />for information on activating the library's complimentary electronic access to this publication.


Editorial Advisory Board

Silvia Abrahão
Valencia University of Technology, Spain

Fotis Lazarinis
University of Sunderland, UK

Manuel Ángel Serrano
University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Chad Lin
Curtin University of Technology, Australia

Mª Ángeles Moraga
University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Thomas Mandl
University of Hildesheim, Germany

Ricardo Barros
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Adriana Martin
Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Argentina

Ismael Caballero
University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Maristella Matera
Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Coral Calero
University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Xiannong Meng
Bucknell University, USA

Angélica Caro
University of Bio-Bio, Chile

Mario Piattini
University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

John D’Ambra
University of New South Wales, Australia

Macario Polo
University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Eduardo Fernández Medina
University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Cédric Pruskim
University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Carlos García
Indra Software Factory, Spain

Francisco Ruiz
University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Ignacio García-Rodríguez de Guzmán
University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Tony Shan
University of Phoenix, USA

Marcela Genero
University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Aurora Vizcaíno
University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Pankaj Kamthan
Concordia University, Canada

Table of Contents

Preface . ................................................................................................................................................ xv
Acknowledgment . .............................................................................................................................. xix

Section I
Effort and Quality Assessment
Chapter I
Sizing Web Applications for Web Effort Estimation .............................................................................. 1
Emilia Mendes, The University of Auckland, New Zealand
Chapter II
Web Development Effort Estimation: An Empirical Analysis ............................................................ 26
Emilia Mendes, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Silvia Abrahão, Valencia University of Technology, Spain
Chapter III
Patterns for Improving the Pragmatic Quality of Web Information Systems ....................................... 57
Pankaj Kamthan, Concordia University, Canada
Chapter IV
Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Small and Medium Sized Businesses Web Sites
in a Business to Business Context ........................................................................................................ 71
Rosemary Stockdale, Massey University, New Zealand
Chad Lin, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
Chapter V
Anomaly Detection and Quality Evaluation of Web Applications ....................................................... 86
May Haydar, Université de Montréal, Canada
Ghazwa Malak, Université de Montréal, Canada
Houari Sahraoui, Université de Montréal, Canada
Alexandre Petrenko, Centre de recherche informatique de Montréal (CRIM), Canada

Sergiy Boroday, Centre de recherche informatique de Montréal (CRIM), Canada


Chapter VI
Automatic Quality Assessment for Internet Pages ............................................................................ 104
Thomas Mandl, Universität Hildesheim, Germany
Chapter VII
A General View of Quality Models for Web Portals and a Particularization to
E-Banking Domain............................................................................................................................. 113
Mª Ángeles Moraga, University of Castilla—La Mancha, Spain
Julio Córdoba, University of Alicante, Spain
Coral Calero, University of Castilla—La Mancha, Spain
Cristina Cachero, University of Alicante, Spain
Chapter VIII
A Data Quality Model for Web Portals ............................................................................................... 130
Angélica Caro, University of Bio Bio, Chile
Coral Calero, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Mario Piattini, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Section II
Accessibility and Usability
Chapter IX
Specification of the Context of Use for the Development of Web-Based Applications...................... 146
Marta Fernández De Arriba, University of Oviedo, Spain
Eugenia Díaz, University of Oviedo, Spain
Jesús Rodríguez Pérez, University of Oviedo, Spain
Chapter X
Web Accessibility ............................................................................................................................... 163
Carlos García Moreno, Indra, Spain
Chapter XI

Comparing Approaches to Web Accessibility Assessment ................................................................. 181
Adriana Martín, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Argentina
Alejandra Cechich, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Argentina
Gustavo Rossi, Universidad Nacional de La Plata and Conicet, Argentina
Chapter XII
Maximizing Web Accessibility Through User-Centered Interface Design . ....................................... 206
Soonhwa Seok, The University of Kansas, USA


Chapter XIII
Usability-Oriented Quality Model Based on Ergonomic Criteria ...................................................... 220
Francisco Montero, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
María Dolores Lozano, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Pascual González, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Chapter XIV
The Usability Dimension in the Development of Web Applications . ................................................ 234
Maristella Matera, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Francesca Rizzo, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Rebeca Cortázar, University of Deusto, Spain
Asier Perallos, University of Deusto, Spain
Chapter XV
Handling Usability Aspects for the Construction of Business Process Driven
Web Applications................................................................................................................................. 250
Victoria Torres, Technical University of Valencia, Spain
Joan Fons, Technical University of Valencia, Spain
Vicente Pelechano, Technical University of Valencia, Spain

Section III
Metadata, MDE, Metamodels, and Ontologies
Chapter XVI

New Approaches to Portletization of Web Applications..................................................................... 270
Fernando Bellas, University of A Coruña, Galicia
Iñaki Paz, University of the Basque, Spain
Alberto Pan, University of A Coruña, Galicia
Óscar Díaz, University of the Basque, Spain
Chapter XVII
Towards the Adaptive Web Using Metadata Evolution ...................................................................... 286
Nicolas Guelfi, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Cédric Pruski, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg and University of Paris-Sud XI, France
Chantal Reynaud, University of Paris-Sud XI, France
Chapter XVIII
Looking for Information in Fuzzy Relational Databases Accessible via Web .................................. 301
Carmen Martínez-Cruz, University of Jaén, Spain
Ignacio José Blanco, University of Granada, Spain
M. Amparo Vila, University of Granada, Spain


Chapter XIX
A Web Metadata Based-Model for Information Quality Prediction ................................................... 324
Ricardo Barros, COPPE—Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Geraldo Xexéo, COPPE—Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Wallace A. Pinheiro, COPPE—Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Jano de Souza, COPPE—Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Chapter XX
Towards Quality Web Information Systems Through Precise Model-Driven Development.............. 344
Fernando Molina, University of Murcia, Spain
Francisco J. Lucas, University of Murcia, Spain
Ambrosio Toval Alvarez, University of Murcia, Spain
Juan M. Vara, Rey Juan Carlos University—Madrid, Spain
Paloma Cáceres, Rey Juan Carlos University—Madrid, Spain

Esperanza Marcos, Rey Juan Carlos University—Madrid, Spain
Chapter XXI
The Use of Metamodels in Web Requirements to Assure the Consistence ........................................ 363
M. J. Escalona, University of Seville, Spain
G. Aragón, Everis, Spain
Chapter XXII
A Quality-Aware Engineering Process for Web Applications............................................................. 378
Cristina Cachero Castro, Universidad de Alicante, Spain
Coral Calero, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Yolanda Marhuenda García, Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, Spain
Chapter XXIII
Restrictive Methods and Meta Methods for Thematically Focused Web Exploration ....................... 405
Sergej Sizov, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany
Stefan Siersdorfer, University of Sheffield, UK
Chapter XXIV
WSRP-O: An Ontology to Model WSRP Compliant Portlets ............................................................ 424
Mª Ángeles Moraga, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Ignacio García-Rodríguez De Guzmán, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Coral Calero, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Mario Piattini, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Chapter XXV
Philosophy of Architecture Design in Web Information Systems ...................................................... 443
Tony C. Shan, Bank of America, USA
Winnie W. Hua, CTS Inc., USA


Section IV
Search Engine and Information
Chapter XXVI
Improving the Quality of Web Search................................................................................................. 463

Mohamed Salah Hamdi, University of Qatar, Qatar
Chapter XXVII
The Perspectives of Improving Web Search Engine Quality.............................................................. 481
Jengchung V. Chen, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Wen-Hsiang Lu, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Kuan-Yu He, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Yao-Sheng Chang, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Chapter XXVIII
Web Search Engine Architectures and their Performance Analysis.................................................... 491
Xiannong Meng, Bucknell University, USA
Chapter XXIX
Towards a Model for Evaluating Web Retrieval Systems in Non-English Queries............................ 510
Fotis Lazarinis, University of Sunderland, UK
Chapter XXX
Web Information Resources Vis-à-Vis Traditional Information Services .......................................... 528
John D’Ambra, The University of New South Wales, Australia
Nina Mistilis, The University of New South Wales, Australia

About the Contributors .................................................................................................................... 541
Index.................................................................................................................................................... 553


Detailed Table of Contents

Preface . ................................................................................................................................................ xv
Acknowledgment . .............................................................................................................................. xix

Section I
Effort and Quality Assessment
This section is related to effort and quality assessment and is composed of eight chapters. The first two

chapters deal with Web development effort estimation. The other six are related to several aspects of
Web quality such as context of use, pragmatic quality, effectiveness of small and medium size business
Web sites, anomaly detection, and quality evaluation and assessment. Also, two chapters are included
where quality models for Web portals and data portal quality are presented.
Chapter I
Sizing Web Applications for Web Effort Estimation .............................................................................. 1
Emilia Mendes, The University of Auckland, New Zealand
This chapter presents a survey literature of size measures (attributes) that have been proposed for Web
effort estimation. These measures are classified according to a proposed taxonomy. In addition, the
authors discuss ways in which Web companies can devise their own size measures.
Chapter II
Web Development Effort Estimation: An Empirical Analysis ............................................................ 26
Emilia Mendes, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Silvia Abrahão, Valencia University of Technology, Spain
The objective of this chapter is to introduce the concepts related to Web effort estimation and effort
estimation techniques. It also details and compares, by means of a case study, three effort estimation
techniques, chosen for this chapter because they have been to date the ones mostly used for Web effort
estimation: multivariate regression, case-based reasoning, and classification and regression trees.


Chapter III
Patterns for Improving the Pragmatic Quality of Web Information Systems ....................................... 57
Pankaj Kamthan, Concordia University, Canada
The chapter emphasizes the significance of approaching Web information systems (WIS) from an engineering viewpoint. A methodology for deploying patterns as means for improving the quality of WIS
as perceived by their stakeholders is presented.
Chapter IV
Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Small and Medium Sized Businesses Web Sites
in a Business to Business Context ........................................................................................................ 71
Rosemary Stockdale, Massey University, New Zealand
Chad Lin, Curtin University of Technology, Australia

This chapter discusses and analyses the effectiveness of SME business to business Web sites from a user
perspective, under the premise that an effective method of evaluating a Web site can contribute to the
development of more quality Web sites and greater realization of benefits.
Chapter V
Anomaly Detection and Quality Evaluation of Web Applications ....................................................... 86
May Haydar, Université de Montréal, Canada
Ghazwa Malak, Université de Montréal, Canada
Houari Sahraoui, Université de Montréal, Canada
Alexandre Petrenko, Centre de recherche informatique de Montréal (CRIM), Canada
Sergiy Boroday, Centre de recherche informatique de Montréal (CRIM), Canada
This chapter addresses the problem of Web application quality assessment from two perspectives. First,
it shows the use of model checking of properties formulated in LTL to detect anomalies in Web applications. Second, the chapter explains how probabilistic models (Bayesian Networks) can be built and used
to evaluate quality characteristics. The two proposed approaches are evaluated and a discussion on how
they complement each other is presented.
Chapter VI
Automatic Quality Assessment for Internet Pages ............................................................................ 104
Thomas Mandl, Universität Hildesheim, Germany
This chapter presents the most prominent systems and prototypes implemented for the automatic quality
assessment for Internet pages, and analyzes the knowledge sources exploited for these approaches.


Chapter VII
A General View of Quality Models for Web Portals and a Particularization to
E-Banking Domain............................................................................................................................. 113
Mª Ángeles Moraga, University of Castilla—La Mancha, Spain
Julio Córdoba, University of Alicante, Spain
Coral Calero, University of Castilla—La Mancha, Spain
Cristina Cachero, University of Alicante, Spain
In this chapter, several portal quality models are presented and compared. Authors have adapted one of
the best portal quality models proposed in the literature to the e-banking context. In addition, the new

e-banking portal quality model has been compared with the original portal quality model, as well as
with the main portal quality characteristics.
Chapter VIII
A Data Quality Model for Web Portals ............................................................................................... 130
Angélica Caro, University of Bio Bio, Chile
Coral Calero, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Mario Piattini, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
The chapter proposes a model for data quality in Web portals (PDQM) built on the foundation of three
key aspects: (1) a set of Web data quality attributes identified in the literature in this area, (2) data quality expectations of data consumers on the Internet, and (3) the functionalities that a Web portal may
offer its users.

Section II
Accessibility and Usability
This section is divided into two main topics. The first chapter works on both topics. The next three chapters deal with accessibility, one of them from a general point of view, another one comparing approaches
to Web accessibility assessment, and the last one about maximizing Web accessibility. The other three
chapters are about usability from the point of view of ergonomic criteria as part of the development
of Web applications or as an important aspect for the construction of business process driven Web applications.
Chapter IX
Specification of the Context of Use for the Development of Web-Based Applications...................... 146
Marta Fernández De Arriba, University of Oviedo, Spain
Eugenia Díaz, University of Oviedo, Spain
Jesús Rodríguez Pérez, University of Oviedo, Spain
This chapter is presented in the structure of an index, which serves as support that allows the development
team to create the specification of the context of use document for the development of Web applications,
bearing in mind characteristics of usability and accessibility.


Chapter X
Web Accessibility ............................................................................................................................... 163
Carlos García Moreno, Indra, Spain

This chapter studies the Web accessibility issue from the perspective of Web information systems quality.
In addition, the closed relation between accessibility and standard Web technologies is explained.
Chapter XI
Comparing Approaches to Web Accessibility Assessment ................................................................. 181
Adriana Martín, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Argentina
Alejandra Cechich, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Argentina
Gustavo Rossi, Universidad Nacional de La Plata and Conicet, Argentina
In this chapter the importance of Web accessibility assessment is discussed and 15 different approaches
found in literature are compared.
Chapter XII
Maximizing Web Accessibility Through User-Centered Interface Design . ....................................... 206
Soonhwa Seok, The University of Kansas, USA
The user interface is the place where users can interact with the information by using their minds. Users with special needs can acquire information by using a human centered user interface. This chapter
highlights the need to investigate the relationship between cognition and user interface.
Chapter XIII
Usability-Oriented Quality Model Based on Ergonomic Criteria ...................................................... 220
Francisco Montero, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
María Dolores Lozano, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Pascual González, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
This chapter proposes a quality model that focuses on quality in use or usability for the product
characterization of the World Wide Web.
Chapter XIV
The Usability Dimension in the Development of Web Applications . ................................................ 234
Maristella Matera, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Francesca Rizzo, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Rebeca Cortázar, University of Deusto, Spain
Asier Perallos, University of Deusto, Spain
This chapter surveys the most emergent usability evaluation models to be adopted during the whole
lifecycle of Web information systems for promoting usability. For each evaluation method, the main
features, as well as the emerging advantages and drawbacks, are illustrated.

Chapter XV
Handling Usability Aspects for the Construction of Business Process Driven
Web Applications................................................................................................................................. 250
Victoria Torres, Technical University of Valencia, Spain
Joan Fons, Technical University of Valencia, Spain
Vicente Pelechano, Technical University of Valencia, Spain
In this chapter, the authors gather a set of guidelines provided by experts in Web usability and present
the solution designed in a particular Web engineering method that follows a model driven development
approach

Section III
Metadata, MDE, Metamodels, and Ontologies
Section III is related to Metadata, MDE, metamodels, and ontologies. The first four chapters are focused
on Metadata issues. In concrete, the former presents a proposal annotated-based to portletizing existing
Web application, the second one uses metada evolution for adaptive Web, and the last two are related
to information. The next chapter presents a proposal for developing quality Web information systems
through precise model driven development. In the next three chapters, different metamodels oriented to
Web requirements, development of Web applications, and Web exploration are shown. Finally, an ontology
for WSRP standard is presented and a philosophy of architecture design in Web Information Systems.
Chapter XVI
New Approaches to Portletization of Web Applications..................................................................... 266
Fernando Bellas, University of A Coruña, Galicia
Iñaki Paz, University of the Basque, Spain
Alberto Pan, University of A Coruña, Galicia
Óscar Díaz, University of the Basque, Spain

This chapter focuses on “portletizing” existing Web applications, that is, wrapping them as portlets,
without requiring any modification. After providing some background on portlet technology, they discuss

two kinds of approaches to portletization: automatic and annotation-based.
Chapter XVII
Towards the Adaptive Web Using Metadata Evolution ...................................................................... 286
Nicolas Guelfi, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Cédric Pruski, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg and University of Paris-Sud XI, France
Chantal Reynaud, University of Paris-Sud XI, France
The authors survey techniques for ontology evolution. The authors detail the various existing languages
and techniques devoted to Web data evolution, with particular attention to Semantic Web concepts, and


how these languages and techniques can be adapted to evolving data in order to improve the quality of
web information systems applications.
Chapter XVIII
Looking for Information in Fuzzy Relational Databases Accessible via Web .................................. 301
Carmen Martínez-Cruz, University of Jaén, Spain
Ignacio José Blanco, University of Granada, Spain
M. Amparo Vila, University of Granada, Spain
In this chapter, the importance of using ontologies to represent database schemas is highlighted. The
representation of the fuzzy data in fuzzy databases management systems (FDBMS) has certain special
requirements, and these characteristics must be explicitly defined to enable this kind of information to
be accessed.
Chapter XIX
A Web Metadata Based-Model for Information Quality Prediction ................................................... 324
Ricardo Barros, COPPE—Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Geraldo Xexéo, COPPE—Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Wallace A. Pinheiro, COPPE—Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Jano de Souza, COPPE—Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
This chapter addresses those issues by proposing a Web metadata-based model to evaluate and recommend Web pages based on their information quality, as predicted by their metadata.
Chapter XX
Towards Quality Web Information Systems Through Precise Model-Driven Development.............. 344

Fernando Molina, University of Murcia, Spain
Francisco J. Lucas, University of Murcia, Spain
Ambrosio Toval Alvarez, University of Murcia, Spain
Juan M. Vara, Rey Juan Carlos University—Madrid, Spain
Paloma Cáceres, Rey Juan Carlos University—Madrid, Spain
Esperanza Marcos, Rey Juan Carlos University—Madrid, Spain
This chapter presents one WIS development methodology (MIDAS) that has been completed with the
definition of a strategy for the formal specification of its models with V&V objectives.
Chapter XXI
The Use of Metamodels in Web Requirements to Assure the Consistence ........................................ 363
M. J. Escalona, University of Seville, Spain
G. Aragón, Everis, Spain
This chapter presents NDT (navigational development techniques), a Web methodological approach to
deal with requirements, based on model-driven engineering. The proposal is composed of a set of procedures, techniques, and models to assure the quality of results in the Web requirements treatment.


Chapter XXII
A Quality-Aware Engineering Process for Web Applications............................................................. 378
Cristina Cachero Castro, Universidad de Alicante, Spain
Coral Calero, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Yolanda Marhuenda García, Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, Spain
This chapter introduces the necessity to consider quality management activities as part of the Web
engineering (WE) process to improve the final quality of Web applications with respect to creative
practices.
Chapter XXIII
Restrictive Methods and Meta Methods for Thematically Focused Web Exploration ....................... 405
Sergej Sizov, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany
Stefan Siersdorfer, University of Sheffield, UK

This chapter addresses the problem of automatically organizing heterogeneous collections of Web documents for generation of thematically focused expert search engines and portals. As a possible application

scenario for the presented techniques, the authors show a Web crawler that aims to populate topics of
interest by automatically categorizing newly fetched documents.

Chapter XXIV
WSRP-O: An Ontology to Model WSRP Compliant Portlets ............................................................ 424
Mª Ángeles Moraga, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Ignacio García-Rodríguez De Guzmán, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Coral Calero, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Mario Piattini, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
This chapter presents an ontology for WSRP standard. The aim of this standard is to provide a common
interface in order to allow the communication between portal and portlets. Bearing this in mind, in this
work the authors propose an ontology for the WSRP standard. The ontology offers an understandable
summary of the standard.
Chapter XXV
Philosophy of Architecture Design in Web Information Systems ...................................................... 443
Tony C. Shan, Bank of America, USA
Winnie W. Hua, CTS Inc., USA
This chapter defines a comprehensive set of guiding principles—philosophy of architecture design
(PAD)—as a means of coping with the architecture design complexity and managing the architectural
assets of Web information systems in a service-oriented paradigm.


Section IV
Search Engine and Information
This section is focused on two main topics: search engine and information. Among the chapters classified
in this section, four of them are related to the first topic, whereas the last two are related to the second
one. The chapters focused on search engine deal with the following issues: improve the quality of Web
search, enhance Web search engine performance, and Web search engine architectures. Regarding the
chapters which are focused on information, we can highlight that one of them proposes a model for
evaluating Web retrieval systems in non English queries, and the other one presents Web information

resources vis-à-vis traditional information services.
Chapter XXVI
Improving the Quality of Web Search................................................................................................. 463
Mohamed Salah Hamdi, University of Qatar, Qatar
In this chapter, the authors propose the improvement of the quality of Web search by combining metasearch and self-organizing maps. This can help users both in locating interesting documents more easily
and in getting an overview of the retrieved document set.
Chapter XXVII
The Perspectives of Improving Web Search Engine Quality.............................................................. 481
Jengchung V. Chen, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Wen-Hsiang Lu, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Kuan-Yu He, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Yao-Sheng Chang, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
In this chapter, some past research in Web search and current trends focusing on how to improve the
search quality in different perspectives of “what,” “how,” “where,” “when,” and “why” are discussed.
Chapter XXVIII
Web Search Engine Architectures and their Performance Analysis.................................................... 491
Xiannong Meng, Bucknell University, USA
The objectives of the chapter are to review the theories and technologies pertaining to Web search,
helping in the understanding of how Web search engines work, and how to use the search engines more
effectively and efficiently.
Chapter XXIX
Towards a Model for Evaluating Web Retrieval Systems in Non-English Queries............................ 510
Fotis Lazarinis, University of Sunderland, UK
The purpose of this chapter is to describe the methods and the criteria used for evaluating search engines, and proposes a model for evaluating the searching effectiveness of Web retrieval systems in non
English queries.


Chapter XXX
Web Information Resources Vis-à-Vis Traditional Information Services .......................................... 528
John D’Ambra, The University of New South Wales, Australia

Nina Mistilis, The University of New South Wales, Australia
The chapter proposes that visitor information centres are analogous to a general information system and
that centre user experience can partially be explained by their perception of the information resource
quality.

About the Contributors .................................................................................................................... 541
Index.................................................................................................................................................... 553


xviii

Preface

Web information systems are rapidly growing, and the increasing demand of that software has made the
quality a discriminator factor becoming a key factor for their success.
Advances in technology and the use of Internet have favored the appearance of a great variety of Web
software applications. As a result, over the past decade the number of organizations which make use of
Web applications has grown dramatically. These Web applications are used by different companies with
the aim of giving several services to their clients. From the user’s point of view, Web applications are
used to make deals. In both cases, the quality is relevant. In the first case, it is fundamental the quality
of Web applications in order to give a good service and assure the loyalty of users. In the second case,
the quality is important in order that users can achieve their objectives in a proper way.
Therefore, it is essential not only to develop new Web information systems, but also to take into account their quality. With regard to this, new methodologies and models are being developed to improve
and assess the quality of Web information systems. In such an ever-evolving environment, Web engineers,
software quality managers, software engineers, software architects, MSc. Students, and university-level
professors of the discipline need access to the most current information about the models, measures, and
methodologies in this emerging field.
The Web age has modified our society, and new business models have appeared, while others have
been modified. In addition, the relationships between the different actors have changed.
It may be worth emphasizing that Web Technologies have become very important in information

systems. Web Technologies are essential for organizations. Currently, it is indispensable that the developed Web products, such as Web pages, Web applications, Web portals, and so forth, achieve a minimum
level of quality.
According to Offutt 20021, several factors inherent to Web development affect to the quality:
1.

2.

3.

Developers build Web-based software systems by integrating numerous diverse components from
disparate sources, including custom built special-purpose applications, customized off-the-shelf
software components, and third-party products.
Much of the new complexity found with Web-based applications also results from how the different software components are integrated. Not only is the source unavailable for most of the components, the executables might be hosted on computers at remote, even competing organizations.
To ensure high quality for Web systems composed of very loosely coupled components, we need
novel techniques to achieve and evaluate these components’ connections.
Finally, Web-based software offers the significant advantage of allowing data to be transferred
among completely different types of software components that reside and execute on different
computers. However, using multiple programming languages and building complex business applications complicates the flow of data through the various Web software pieces.


xix

The Handbook of Research on Web information systems Quality provides comprehensive coverage
of the most important issues, such as: effort and quality assessment, accessibility, usability, metadata,
MDE, metamodels, ontologies search engine, and information. All of them focus on Web information
systems.
The handbook is divided into four sections that cover the main tendencies on the Web information
systems research and gives a clear vision of the main actual lines of work and also the topics where
more effort is being developed.
The first section is on quality assessment, where different approaches, whose central point is quality,

are presented. The second is on accessibility and usability, perhaps two of the most important factors
related to Web information systems and where more research and development efforts are deployed
from the beginning of this discipline. The third section approaches the technological point of view with
chapters about metadata, MDE, metamodels, and ontologies. Finally, the last section works on Web
engines and information on the Web.
As we have already mentioned, the first section is related to effort and quality assessment and is
composed of eight chapters. The first chapter presents a survey literature of size measures (attributes)
that have been proposed for Web effort estimation. These measures are classified according to a proposed taxonomy. In addition, the authors discuss ways in which Web companies can devise their own
size measures. The objective of the second chapter is to introduce the concepts related to Web effort
estimation and effort estimation techniques. It also details and compares, by means of a case study, three
effort estimation techniques.
Chapter III emphasizes the significance of approaching Web information systems (WIS) from an
engineering viewpoint. A methodology for deploying patterns as means for improving the quality of
WIS as perceived by their stakeholders is presented. The fourth chapter discusses and analyses the effectiveness of SME business to business Web sites from a user perspective under the premise that an
effective method of evaluating a Web site can contribute to the development of more quality Web sites
and greater realization of benefits. In Chapter V, the problem of Web application quality assessment is
assessed from two perspectives.
Chapter VI presents the most prominent systems and prototypes implemented for the automatic quality assessment for Internet pages and analyzes the knowledge sources exploited for these approaches.
In Chapter VII several portal quality models are presented and compared. Authors have adapted one of
the best portal quality model proposed in the literature to the e-banking context.
Finally, the section ends with a chapter that proposes a model for data quality in Web portals (PDQM)
built upon the foundation of three key aspects: (1) a set of Web data quality attributes identified in the
literature in this area, (2) data quality expectations of data consumers on the Internet, and (3) the functionalities that a Web portal may offer its users.
The second section of the book is divided into two main topics and is composed of seven chapters.
The first works on both topics. The three next chapters deal with accessibility, one of them from a general point of view, another one comparing approaches to Web accessibility assessment, and the last one
about maximizing Web accessibility. The other three chapters are about usability from the point of view
of ergonomic criteria as part of the development of Web applications or as an important aspect for the
construction of business process driven Web applications.
Concretely, Chapter IX is presented in the structure of an index, which allows the development team
to create the specification of the context of use document for the development of Web applications, bearing in mind characteristics of usability and accessibility.

Chapter X studies the Web accessibility issue from the perspective of Web information systems
Quality. In addition, the closed relationship between accessibility and standard Web technologies is


xx

explained. In the eleventh chapter, the importance of Web accessibility assessment is discussed and 15
different approaches found in literature are compared.
The user interface is the place where users can interact with the information by using their minds.
Users with special needs can acquire information by using a human centred user interface. Chapter XII
highlights the need to investigate the relationship between cognition and user interface.
Chapter XIII proposes a quality model that focuses on quality in use or usability for the product characterization of the World Wide Web, and Chapter XIV surveys the most emergent usability evaluation
models to be adopted during the whole lifecycle of Web information systems, for promoting usability.
In the last chapter of this section, the authors gather a set of guidelines provided by experts in Web
usability and present the solution designed in a particular Web engineering method that follows a model
driven development approach.
The third section is related to metadata, MDE, metamodels, and ontologies. The first four chapters
focus on metadata issues. In the next three chapters, different metamodels oriented to Web requirements,
development of Web applications, and Web exploration are shown. Finally, an ontology for WSRP standard is presented and a philosophy of architecture design in Web information systems.
The section starts with Chapter XVI, focused on “portletizing” existing Web applications, that is,
wrapping them as portlets, without requiring any modification. After providing some background on
portlet technology, they discuss two kinds of approaches to portletization: automatic and annotationbased. In Chapter XVII, the authors survey techniques for ontology evolution. The authors detail the
various existing languages and techniques devoted to Web data evolution, with particular attention to
Semantic Web concepts, and how these languages and techniques can be adapted to evolving data in
order to improve the quality of Web information systems applications.
In Chapter XVIII, the importance of using ontologies to represent database schemas is highlighted.
The representation of the fuzzy data in fuzzy databases management systems (FDBMS) has certain special
requirements, and these characteristics must be explicitly defined to enable this kind of information to
be accessed. Chapter XIX addresses those issues by proposing a Web metadata-based model to evaluate
and recommend Web pages based on their information quality, as predicted by their metadata.

Chapter XX presents one WIS development methodology (MIDAS) that has been completed with
the definition of a strategy for the formal specification of its models with V&V objectives, and chapter
XXI presents NDT (navigational development techniques), a Web methodological approach to deal with
requirements, based on model-driven engineering. The proposal is composed of a set of procedures,
techniques and models to assure the quality of results in the Web requirements treatment.
Chapter XXII introduces the necessity to consider quality management activities as part of the Web
engineering (WE) process to improve the final quality of Web applications with respect to creative
practices.
The problem of automatically organizing heterogeneous collections of Web documents for generation
of thematically focused expert search engines and portals is the focus of Chapter XXIII. As a possible
application scenario for the presented techniques, the authors show a Web crawler that aims to populate
topics of interest by automatically categorizing newly fetched documents.
An ontology for WSRP standard is presented in Chapter XXIV. The aim of this standard is to provide
a common interface in order to allow the communication between portal and portlets. Bearing this in
mind, in this work the authors propose an ontology for the WSRP standard that offers an understandable
summary of the standard.
Closing this section, Chapter XXV provides a comprehensive set of guiding principles—philosophy
of architecture design (PAD)—as a means of coping with the architecture design complexity and managing the architectural assets of Web information systems in a service-oriented paradigm.


xxi

The last section of the book focuses on two main topics: search engine and information. Among the
chapters classified in this section, four of them are related to the first topic, whereas the last two are
related to the second one.
The section starts with Chapter XXVI, where the authors propose the improvement of the quality of
Web search by combining meta-search and self-organizing maps. This can help users both in locating
interesting documents more easily and in getting an overview of the retrieved document set.
In Chapter XXVII, some past research in Web search and current trends focusing on how to improve the
search quality in different perspectives of “what,” “how,” “where,” “when,” and “why” are discussed.

The objectives of Chapter XXVIII are to review the theories and technologies pertaining to Web
search, helping in the understanding of how Web search engines work, and how to use the search engines
more effectively and efficiently.
The purpose of the Chapter XXIX is to describe methods and criteria used for evaluating search
engines. The chapter also proposes a model for evaluating the searching effectiveness of Web retrieval
systems in non English queries.
Finally, the last chapter of the book proposes that visitor information centres are analogous to a general information system and that centre user experience can partially be explained by their perception
of the information resource quality.
Due to the variety of topics and the different aspects related to the research on quality for Web information systems, this handbook can be used by software engineering researchers and practitioners
(professors, PhD, and postgraduate students, industrial R&D departments, etc.) for helping in the understanding of the topic, knowing about the main current tendencies of research and the future lines of
research on Web information systems quality.

Endnote
1



Offutt, A. J. (2002). Quality attributes of Web software applications. IEEE Software, 19(2), 2532.


xxii

Acknowledgment

The editors would like to acknowledge the help of all involved in the collation and review process of
the handbook, without whose support the project could not have been satisfactorily completed.
Most of the authors of chapters included in this handbook also served as referees for chapters written by
other authors. Also, other important international researchers have collaborated as reviewers of our handbook. We want to thank all of them for their great work and constructive and comprehensive reviews.
Special thanks also go to the publishing team at IGI Global, whose contributions throughout the whole
process from inception of the initial idea to final publication have been invaluable. Thanks in particular

to Kristin Roth and Jessica Thompson, who continuously prodded via e-mail for keeping the project on
schedule, and to Michelle Potter, whose enthusiasm motivated me to initially accept her invitation for
taking on this project.
Special thanks go to Spanish Ministry of Education that financed this work, under the research projects
ESFINGE (TIN2006-15175-C05-05) and CALIPSO (TIN2005-24055-E).
In closing, we wish to thank all of the authors for their insights and excellent contributions to this
handbook.
Dra. Coral Calero
Dra. Mª Ángeles Moraga
Dr. Mario Piattini
Ciudad Real, Spain
June 2007



Section I

Effort and Quality Assessment