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Open Source Portal Software as a Catalyst for Sound Software Engineering Practices at UTEP
(2005)
  • Kenneth R Pierce, University of Texas at El Paso
Abstract
As web sites become more and more the primary face of universities, it is essential that they provide a consistent, stable view to the user. Unlike many corporations with large web sites, universities have historically had difficulty in gaining the cooperation needed across their campuses to provide a uniform user experience. Colleges, departments, and programs are usually in charge of their own web site design and content, therefore consistency, usability, and reuse are of little consideration. Were there a catalyst to entice a university to consolidate its web infrastructure, it would most likely fall upon the university’s Information Technology (IT) department to implement and support it. Given this responsibility, it is imperative that the IT department choose an appropriate foundation for the web infrastructure, and employ proven software development processes. One university, The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), recently made this major paradigm shift in preparation of its accreditation review from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). It now successfully hosts nearly 1000 integrated web sites in an infrastructure that is built upon an open source portal technology, and this technology infrastructure has assisted UTEP’s IT department in formalizing and implementing key software engineering practices for their web infrastructure. UTEP’s IT department has seen improvements in requirements gathering, coding standards, design templates, code reuse, testing, deployment, and project management. A thorough investigation of the deliberate technology decisions made by UTEP, and the process changes they made following these decisions, reveal dramatic increases in the UTEP development team’s capability levels as measured by the Software Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI). This document recommends that all universities implement technology and processes that mimic those of the University of Texas at El Paso in order to establish a concise road to process maturity.
Keywords
  • Open-Source,
  • Software
Publication Date
September 18, 2005
Comments
This document may be freely downloaded. However, if any material from this document is used, please ensure that it is cited appropriately.
Citation Information
Kenneth R Pierce. "Open Source Portal Software as a Catalyst for Sound Software Engineering Practices at UTEP" (2005)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/kenneth_pierce/1/