Title: Reference software architecture for improving modifiability of personalised web applications - a controlled experiment

Authors: Luz-Viviana Cobaleda; Raúl Mazo; Jorge Luis Risco Becerra; John-Freddy Duitama

Addresses: Engineering and Software Research Group, University of Antioquia, Calle 70 No. 52-21, Medellín, Colombia ' Centre de Recherche en Informatique (CRI), Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne University, 90 rue de Tolbiac, 75013 Paris, France ' Laboratory of Software Technology (LTS), University of São Paulo, Rua prof. luciano gualberto 158 trav 3 São Paulo, Brazil ' Engineering and Software Research Group, University of Antioquia, Calle 70 No. 52-21, Medellín, Colombia

Abstract: Although web personalisation has been studied for the last two decades, there remains a need to address current challenges: context-awareness and the inclusion in a business environment. The wide variety of mobile devices and their continuous technological evolution demands the permanent development of new personalisation strategies. Additionally, two factors complicate the inclusion of personalised web applications in a business environment: the frequent change of personalisation strategies for each business, and the technical complexity to integrate these strategies in a short time. We propose a reference architecture as a tool to favour their modifiability. Moreover, our proposal facilitates the opportunity for enterprises to adopt web-personalised systems into their business as a strategic tool. A controlled experiment validates our approach; we compare five change scenarios that are implemented under two architectures: experimental and control architecture. We used change scenarios derived from a real Brazilian e-commerce enterprise.

Keywords: web personalisation; reference software architecture; personalised apps; modifiability; personalised web applications; software components; context awareness; business environment; Brazil; e-commerce; electronic commerce.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWET.2016.081768

International Journal of Web Engineering and Technology, 2016 Vol.11 No.4, pp.351 - 370

Published online: 24 Jan 2017 *

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