This is one of those books that has value, but it's not the style of writing that appeals to me... Web Engineering edited by Gerti Kappel, Birgit Proll, Siegfried Reich, and Werner Retschitzegger. Let me explain...
Contents: An Introduction to Web Engineering; Requirements Engineering for Web Applications; Modeling Web Applications; Web Application Architectures; Technology-aware Web Application Design; Technologies for Web Applications; Testing Web Applications; Operation and Maintenance of Web Applications; Web Project Management; The Web Application Development Process; Usability of Web Applications; Performance of Web Applications; Security for Web Applications; The Semantic Web - The Network of Meanings in the Network of Documents; Glossary; Author Biographies; Bibliography; Credits; Index
This is set up as a compilation of chapters written by a number of contributors. It's better than most compilations, in that it's not a "best of" grab bag of writing styles and approaches. There is an overall structure, and all the subject matter conforms to that structure. It reminds me a lot of a text book that would be used in a college level course. And in fact, that's one of the target audiences. They also aim for the people in the real world of web software development, but the appeal would seem to be for those who are *very* structured in their approach. They aim to bring a structured software development methodology to the world of web development, complete with formal requirement gathering, modeling, etc. Considering how often you get fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants applications at the web level, there is definite benefit to bringing engineering processes to that style of application development. But the type of quick development/rapid iteration development you often see targeted for web applications is more in tune with agile methodologies that are lighter on process and documentation. Your view on the material here will be influenced greatly by your feelings and attitudes towards structured program development processes...
Yes, the quality of web applications can definitely be improved, and the material in this book would help. But to me, there was a bit too much methodology and process coupled with not enough practicality. But maybe if you get your readers in college before we old-timers can corrupt them, this could work... :)
