From Prototype To Production In Hypermedia Projects Prototype To Production In Hypermedia Projects

Many hypermedia projects exist as small-scale prototypes or so-called proof of concept demonstrations. But full-scale projects that are deployed and maintained In production are scarce, because problems can arise at various points In the project life cycle that cause the project to fail. Problems that arise when the project is started include the lack of realistic expectations and the difficulty of assembling a multidisciplinary project team. Problems that emerge during the design and development phases lnclude few published case studies or design guidelines, poor quality or availability of source information, Inappropriate and underpowered software technology, and uncertainty about Intellectual property Issues. Problems at the deployment and maintenance phases lnclude installed base constraints and Inadequate methods for maintaining the hypermedia system. Not all of these problems are specific to hypermedia projects, but they conspire with the novelty and immaturity of hypermedia to make hypermedia applications hard to design, develop, and deploy successfully. Introduction: A Composi te Case Study Attracted by the excitement about hypermedia in the popular press and technical community, an organization decides that links, navigation features, and multimedia will bring enhanced usability to an information management problem that has traditionally been handled in a database or document archive. Since it is the first hypermedia project for the organization, start-up funds are easy to come by. All of the most talented and ambitious researchers and developers in the organization find their way onto the project. No one keeps track of how much time and effort goes into it, but after a few months a carefully hand-crafted demonstration system or prototype emerges using "Hyper-X". HyperX is a highly-touted program that everyone is talking and reading about as a revolutionary software advance. Copyright by Archives & Museum Informatics, 1991 International Conference on Hypermedia & Interactivity in Museums The prototype system is flashy and compelling on the 19-inch workstation screen. It contains only a tiny amount of the information contained in the proposed full-scale application, but even a casual observer is impressed by how appealing it looks. The colors, graphics and images scanned from documents and books, animation, and sound effects come together seamlessly to create a compelling proof-of-concept. A senior executive in the organization compares the hypermedia prototype with the original text-based system and declares the Hyper-X version a smashing success. All that remains is to "scale it up" to a production version by converting the remainder of the information to hypermedia. How you react to this case study depends on where you are in your hypermedia project, or whether you are part of the prototype team or a member of the team tasked to put it into full-scale production. But the prototype is almost certain to fail to make it into production (Glushko, 1991). Problems for Hypermedia Projects The case study has followed a typical scenario for hypermedia projects that has set the stage for failure. The problems that face hypermedia projects can be categorized by the phase in the application life cycle at which they arise. Each set of problems represents a barrier to a successful project. Not all of the problems are specific to hypermedia projects, but they conspire with the novelty and immaturity of hypermedia to make hypermedia applications hard to design, develop, and deploy successfully. In this paper I consider problems of three types: problems that arise when the project is started, problems that emerge during the design and development phases, and problems at the deployment and maintenance phases. Loosely put, these are problems with getting started, getting it done, and getting it to work.