Developments in WIS development

This paper presents findings from a longitudinal field study of web-design undertaken in a webdevelopment company. The main contribution is a comparison of some early predictions on the implications of the increased usage of www-technologies for more complex information systems and core findings from two field studies of a specific web-development work setting. The two studies are snapshots from a longitudinal study. Focus in the studies has been on organization of the development work, essential characteristics of the development work, and core characteristics of the products developed. Many of the core problems to be handled in web-based information systems (WIS) development are quite analogous to challenges known from "traditional" information systems development, although the pace and the number of involved competencies increase, there is a lack of standards in many areas, and there is an increase in communication problems between the different competence groups.