ISSRE2001::The 12th International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering

Tutorial 2:

Building Quality & Reliability in E-Business Applications

Speaker: Professor San Murugesan

[ About the Speaker ] [ Abstract ] [ Outline ]

About the Speaker:

San Murugesan is Associate Professor in the School of Computing and Information Technology at the University of Western Sydney. He is also the founding Associate Director of AeIMS (Advanced enterprise Information Management Systems) Research Centre established to comprehensively address the issues related to adoption of Web-based information systems and e-business systems by small and medium enterprises (SMEs). He has been actively engaged in assisting enterprises in using IT and electronic commerce for competitive advantage.

He has accumulated over 28 years of valuable experience and distinctions in industry, academia and research institutions. His is currently working on and guiding a number of research and development projects in e-business, Web engineering, e-transformation, personalisation of e-business systems, online electronic products catalogs, Web-based information systems, and enterprise information management.

San also leads the teaching and research initiative in e-business at the University of Western Sydney. He along with colleagues developed two undergraduate programmes: Bachelor of Commerce (e-business) and Bachelor of Business Computing (e-business). In addition he also developed and taught subjects at undergraduate and masters level in the areas of e-business: introduction to e-business, e-business technologies and applications, electronic payment and security, and e-business infrastructure.

Recently, following receipt of a major grant from NSW Government, he and his team has conducted the IT Survey 2000 to find out how enterprises in Western Sydney are using information technologies and the Internet to enhance their business processes.

He also led the development of the new discipline of Web Engineering which deals with systematic approaches to development of large, complex Web-based applications, including e-business system. He is a co-guest editor of the special issues of IEEE Multimedia on Web Engineering Part 1 and 2 (Jan 2001 and April 2001). He and his colleague edited a book on Web Engineering published by Springer Verlag (2001).

He has been an invited speaker in several conferences and professional meetings, and has presented many tutorials and short courses in the area of e-business, intelligent agents, web application development, agent-based information system, expert system applications in business. He also gave a tutorial on Human Aspects of Software Reliability Engineering in an earlier ISSRE. He has been invited to give a keynote speech in the International Conference on the Internet and Multimedia Applications, Kuala Lumpur, August 2001.

San has over 140 journal and conference publications. His recent publication related to this tutorial include: A Roadmap for Successful e-Transformation (Cutter IT Journal, May 2001) and Web Engineering: A Methodology for Scalable and Maintainable Web Application Development (Cutter IT Journal, July 2001). He has also published in the areas of electronic product catalogues and automated negotiation by software agents in the electronic marketplace.

Currently he is a Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Information Technology Cases and Applications (1999 - ). He also served as the Co-Program Chair of the eight international workshops in the last five years.

He was a Senior Research Fellow of the National Research Council (NRC), USA, and worked at NASA Ames Research Center, California (1988 – 90).

He has been honoured as a Distinguished Visitor of the IEEE Computer Society, Asia-Pacific Region (1995-96), a distinct honour offered by the IEEE Computer Society to persons “who are eminent in their field and are able speakers.” He was also awarded Certificate of Appreciation in recognition of his services to the Distinguished Visitor Program of the IEEE Computer Society. He is the Founding Chair of the ACM SIGWEB Work Group on Web Engineering and a Senior Member of IEEE. He was the Vice-Chairman of IEEE Computer Society, NSW Chapter. He is the recipient of the UWS Macarthur Research Award (1998) in recognition of his “significant contributions to high quality research and scholarship.”

Abstract:

Enterprises, ranging from small to large, are rushing to use the Internet and Web to leverage their business operations and competitiveness. As a result, a large number of e-commerce, or e-business, systems with varying levels of sophistication, functionality and capabilities have mushroomed. The quality and reliability of many of e-business systems, however, are far from satisfactory, and many recent failures have highlighted these problems and their impact on the enterprises.

Enterprises that faced e-business system infrastructure failures and architectural and functional shortcomings had to combat with angry customers, disappointed analysts, reduced earnings, damaged reputation and other ills that can put at risk the enterprise’s very survival. E-business systems’ reliability and availability, their ability to perform satisfactorily under peak demands, and the integrity of information they provide are major concerns currently facing the enterprises, users and system developers.

The primary causes of most of the problems of Web-based e-business systems are a flawed design and development process, and poor management of their development. Development of e-business applications is more complex and challenging than many of us think. This complexity is not accidental; it is an innate property of a large, full-fledged e-business system. It has many different subsystems or modules and calls for many interactions among them. It also encompasses many disciplines. In many ways, it is different and more complex than traditional software. Furthermore, its development is more complex and challenging than traditional software development. Nevertheless, e-business systems development is still remains ad hoc, contributing to problems.

The way we address these concerns is critical to improving the quality and reliability of e-business systems. Web-based systems need to be designed and built for quality and reliability; these features can’t be added later. The system designers, developers, and maintainers play major role in improving the quality, reliability and robustness of e-business systems, and thereby in increasing the users’ confidence on the system.

This new tutorial will identify and analyse the quality, reliability and performance issues plaguing current e-business systems, and provide a practical, comprehensive overview on building quality and reliability into e-business systems. It will cover different dimensions and measures of Web/ e-business quality, means of improving quality, e-business testing and quality assurance. Further, it will outline sources, or causes, of unreliability and means of enhancing overall reliability and availability of the system. It will also facilitate discussion among participants on this subject of growing importance and significance.

Outline:

E-Business Systems and Applications: An Introduction

- Evolutionary nature of e-business systems

- System complexity

Need for and Significance of Quality, Reliability, Availability and Robustness of E-business System

- Failures and their impact

- Identification and analysis of the problems and issues

Web Quality

- Perspectives on and Dimensions of Web quality

- Web Quality Measures/Indices

- Design for Quality

- Quality Assurance

Techniques for Enhancing Reliability, Availability and Robustness of E-Business Systems

Testing of E-business systems

Evaluation of E-business systems

- Evaluation Criteria

Case studies and tools

Discussion



				Tutorial 2: Building Quality & Reliability in E-Business Applications Speaker: Professor San Murugesan [ About the Speaker ] [ Abstract ] [ Outline ] About the Speaker: San Murugesan is Associate Professor in the School of Computing and Information Technology at the University of Western Sydney. He is also the founding Associate Director of AeIMS (Advanced enterprise Information Management Systems) Research Centre established to comprehensively address the issues related to adoption of Web-based information systems and e-business systems by small and medium enterprises (SMEs). He has been actively engaged in assisting enterprises in using IT and electronic commerce for competitive advantage. He has accumulated over 28 years of valuable experience and distinctions in industry, academia and research institutions. His is currently working on and guiding a number of research and development projects in e-business, Web engineering, e-transformation, personalisation of e-business systems, online electronic products catalogs, Web-based information systems, and enterprise information management. San also leads the teaching and research initiative in e-business at the University of Western Sydney. He along with colleagues developed two undergraduate programmes: Bachelor of Commerce (e-business) and Bachelor of Business Computing (e-business). In addition he also developed and taught subjects at undergraduate and masters level in the areas of e-business: introduction to e-business, e-business technologies and applications, electronic payment and security, and e-business infrastructure. Recently, following receipt of a major grant from NSW Government, he and his team has conducted the IT Survey 2000 to find out how enterprises in Western Sydney are using information technologies and the Internet to enhance their business processes. He also led the development of the new discipline of Web Engineering which deals with systematic approaches to development of large, complex Web-based applications, including e-business system. He is a co-guest editor of the special issues of IEEE Multimedia on Web Engineering Part 1 and 2 (Jan 2001 and April 2001). He and his colleague edited a book on Web Engineering published by Springer Verlag (2001). He has been an invited speaker in several conferences and professional meetings, and has presented many tutorials and short courses in the area of e-business, intelligent agents, web application development, agent-based information system, expert system applications in business. He also gave a tutorial on Human Aspects of Software Reliability Engineering in an earlier ISSRE. He has been invited to give a keynote speech in the International Conference on the Internet and Multimedia Applications, Kuala Lumpur, August 2001. San has over 140 journal and conference publications. His recent publication related to this tutorial include: A Roadmap for Successful e-Transformation (Cutter IT Journal, May 2001) and Web Engineering: A Methodology for Scalable and Maintainable Web Application Development (Cutter IT Journal, July 2001). He has also published in the areas of electronic product catalogues and automated negotiation by software agents in the electronic marketplace. Currently he is a Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Information Technology Cases and Applications (1999 - ). He also served as the Co-Program Chair of the eight international workshops in the last five years. He was a Senior Research Fellow of the National Research Council (NRC), USA, and worked at NASA Ames Research Center, California (1988 – 90). He has been honoured as a Distinguished Visitor of the IEEE Computer Society, Asia-Pacific Region (1995-96), a distinct honour offered by the IEEE Computer Society to persons “who are eminent in their field and are able speakers.” He was also awarded Certificate of Appreciation in recognition of his services to the Distinguished Visitor Program of the IEEE Computer Society. He is the Founding Chair of the ACM SIGWEB Work Group on Web Engineering and a Senior Member of IEEE. He was the Vice-Chairman of IEEE Computer Society, NSW Chapter. He is the recipient of the UWS Macarthur Research Award (1998) in recognition of his “significant contributions to high quality research and scholarship.” Abstract: Enterprises, ranging from small to large, are rushing to use the Internet and Web to leverage their business operations and competitiveness. As a result, a large number of e-commerce, or e-business, systems with varying levels of sophistication, functionality and capabilities have mushroomed. The quality and reliability of many of e-business systems, however, are far from satisfactory, and many recent failures have highlighted these problems and their impact on the enterprises. Enterprises that faced e-business system infrastructure failures and architectural and functional shortcomings had to combat with angry customers, disappointed analysts, reduced earnings, damaged reputation and other ills that can put at risk the enterprise’s very survival. E-business systems’ reliability and availability, their ability to perform satisfactorily under peak demands, and the integrity of information they provide are major concerns currently facing the enterprises, users and system developers. The primary causes of most of the problems of Web-based e-business systems are a flawed design and development process, and poor management of their development. Development of e-business applications is more complex and challenging than many of us think. This complexity is not accidental; it is an innate property of a large, full-fledged e-business system. It has many different subsystems or modules and calls for many interactions among them. It also encompasses many disciplines. In many ways, it is different and more complex than traditional software. Furthermore, its development is more complex and challenging than traditional software development. Nevertheless, e-business systems development is still remains ad hoc, contributing to problems. The way we address these concerns is critical to improving the quality and reliability of e-business systems. Web-based systems need to be designed and built for quality and reliability; these features can’t be added later. The system designers, developers, and maintainers play major role in improving the quality, reliability and robustness of e-business systems, and thereby in increasing the users’ confidence on the system. This new tutorial will identify and analyse the quality, reliability and performance issues plaguing current e-business systems, and provide a practical, comprehensive overview on building quality and reliability into e-business systems. It will cover different dimensions and measures of Web/ e-business quality, means of improving quality, e-business testing and quality assurance. Further, it will outline sources, or causes, of unreliability and means of enhancing overall reliability and availability of the system. It will also facilitate discussion among participants on this subject of growing importance and significance. Outline: E-Business Systems and Applications: An Introduction - Evolutionary nature of e-business systems - System complexity Need for and Significance of Quality, Reliability, Availability and Robustness of E-business System - Failures and their impact - Identification and analysis of the problems and issues Web Quality - Perspectives on and Dimensions of Web quality - Web Quality Measures/Indices - Design for Quality - Quality Assurance Techniques for Enhancing Reliability, Availability and Robustness of E-Business Systems Testing of E-business systems Evaluation of E-business systems - Evaluation Criteria Case studies and tools Discussion