Understanding Business Impacts of Web System Prototypes

David Lowe, david.lowe@uts.edu.au
Norazlin Yusop, norazlin@it.uts.edu.au
Didar Zowghi, didar@it.uts.edu.au
University of Technology, Sydney [HREF1]

Keywords

Impact analysis, prototype evaluation, Web Design, Business Models.

Abstract

Commercial Web developers typically make extensive use of prototypes early in the development life cycle. Rather than supporting requirements validation or elicitation, one of the key objectives of this utilisation of prototypes is to support clients in understanding how the system under development may impact upon their business processes or even business models. Despite this there has been little research into understanding the extent and nature of clients interpretation of early prototypes and how they inform them about potential business impacts. In this paper we report on a pilot study aimed at identifying the key issues in this prototype exploration process, and in particular what aspects of the relationship between prototypes and business models should be considered further. Key outcomes include a number of unexpected indicators, such as pointers towards potential impacts that are not adequately addressed by current prototype exploration, and differences in the capabilities of clients versus developers in understanding system impacts. We also describe key open issues that need further investigation if we are to adequately understand this aspect of the Web development process.