A methodology for evaluating capability, effort and ease of implementation in modular web content management systems

Abstract

Modular web content management systems (WCMS) are widely adopted software plat- forms that facilitate the creation of web applications through a process of con guration and assembly of add-on modules. Although WCMSs have been used in a variety of ap- plication domains (e-commerce, news) no clear guidance as to when it is suitable to use a WCMS could be found. This work proposes a methodology to evaluate the suitability of a WCMS in a particular context. This is done by evaluating the suitability indicators (capability, e ort and ease of implementation) for a given WCMS application. The met- hodology evaluates each indicator per application requirement. Capability is evaluated on a Yes/No basis. E ort is evaluated using e ort level, a relative indicator of e ort. E ort levels are de ned in terms of increasing e ort, varying from 0 (feature present in the product) through to 5 (feature requires a custom module to be written). Ease of implementation is evaluated using a qualitative measure (easy, moderate or di cult) of the implementation di culty. The methodology has been successfully validated through the development and evaluation of a web application for a school within a university faculty. In this instance the WCMS capability was evaluated at 100%, as all require- ments could be implemented. The e ort level analysis showed 16% of requirements were present by default in the core product, 22% required some con guration of the core pro- duct, 32% required a single add-on module to be installed, and 30% required multiple add-on modules to be installed. The ease of implementation analysis showed that 86% of requirements were easy, 7% moderate and 7% di cult. The analysis is presented in order to demonstrate the operation of the methodology. Further data would be nee- ded to extrapolate general trends. With repeated use of the methodology in various contexts, it would be possible to build up a useful reference for those considering the use of a WCMS. In addition, this data would permit analysis of overall strengths and weaknesses of a particular WCMS.