Building hypermedia artifacts by the systematic use of the flexible process model

Abstract

Most of the current hypermedia model life cycles focus in analysis and design issues, ignoring crucial tasks and activities of hypermedia projects. Others do not take care of basic Software Engineering concepts such as planning, physical and logical modeling, validation and quality assurance, among other issues. In this paper we propose an integrated software process model, called Flexible Process Model, useful in building hypermedia artifacts. This strategy, when instanciated in a specific project, implies a systematic use of model-based constructors, both logical and physical models. The main benefits of this process model are: a) it covers all the principal phases and tasks of a hypermedia project; b) this clear break down can contribute fairly to project planning and can help to establish milestones and metrics; c) it fosters a positive balance by a systematic use of logical and physical modeling; d) it facilitates human communication; e) it promote process improvement and standardization. Therefore, we will discuss and represent, in a medium level of granularity, the phases, tasks and activities, mainly in the dynamic modeling phase. Also we will present some perspectives, stressing the functional, methodological and behavioral perspectives of the three-phased Flexible Process Model. Finally, we will discuss related works and concluding remarks.