Patterns: Pervasive Portals Patterns for E-Business Series

7.1 e-business application design

e-business application design is changing the way that the products are created. The designer needs to take care of the functional and non-functional requirements and also be clear the business issues in considering the solution implementation.

In the traditional way to develop applications, the designer should take care of the business requirements but basically the interface does not have variations, considering that the basic capabilities are the same.

In the new e-business environment, the application must be available for many devices and the users have different ways to access the same information. These considerations make the design more ample and the designer must take into further consideration the business requirements and the non-functional requirements such as availability, performance (this depends on the device the user has been using), and other facilities that the e-business application needs.

There are many differences between the traditional applications and e-business applications; some of them are listed below:

• The domain of e-business applications users is typically much more diverse than that of the user group for traditional applications. Users can be known to the systems or anonymous, and can come from inside or outside the enterprise. Web applications must be developed to meet the varied needs of those end users.

• The diversity in user types and exposure to the outside world significantly increases security risks to internal systems. e-business applications security infrastructure and applications must be designed accordingly , and will likely require dedicated security components .

• The user experience, look and feel, and features of the site need to be enhanced frequently to leverage emerging technologies, attract and retain site users.

• Changes and enhancements must be delivered more quickly and flawlessly than ever to avoid damage to the corporation's reputation and lost customers.

• Content for e-business applications can come from many sources: technical and non-technical, from inside or outside the enterprise. Such diversity in location, skill levels, and access creates significant challenges for content creation and management.

• It is hard to predict the runtime load of e-business applications. Based on the many variables , system load can increase dramatically over time. e-business applications and infrastructure must be designed with rapid scalability and availability in mind.

• Connection device, bandwidth, and reliability have an enormous impact on the success of a site. Access devices can range from small-footprint mobile devices such as wireless phones to PCs with near-LAN speed bandwidth. Infrastructure and interfaces for e-business applications must take this into account.

To meet these challenges, flexibility is a critical aspect in the design of Web applications. The following sections provide some suggestions for meeting the diverse challenges of e-business, especially in regard to a Pervasive Portal solution.