Identifying commonalities in web content management system engineering

Purpose: The main purpose of this paper is to improve a web content management system (WCMS) product line for future implementations by identifying software commonalities in WCMS-based web applications. WCMS plays a central role in modern web application development: most large public and internal web sites are based on a WCMS foundation. If we can improve the implementation process, the effectiveness and efficiency of web application development will increase significantly. Design/methodology/approach: This research identifies reusable solutions from existing WCMS implementations using problem diagrams and structured goal modeling. From configurations were matched with atomic e-business models by linking them to the strategic competencies through bottom-up goal modeling. A designed method was constructed on how requirements can be elicited for WCMS implementations using goal modeling and problem frames. Findings: The resulting method provides insight in relevant e-business models and their relation to software product lines. Moreover, the approach is applied in a WCMS study which demonstrates its applicability. Practical implications: The practical implications of this research is twofold: WCMS developers now have a method to improve their product line based on e-business models; and requirements engineers implementing WCMS can use this model to apply reusable software and prioritize requirements. Both will potentially have a large impact on the effectiveness of implementations since most web applications are developed with WCMS. Originality/value: The paper presents a novel approach for efficient and effective identification of software commonalities. This research is part of the web engineering method that focuses on development of web applications based on WCMSs.