WeTS - Web Technology Selection Guidelines

Abstract: Web development is receiving increasing attention among all kinds and sizes of companies. Web presentation has become a hygiene factor for companies nowadays. Fortunately, nowadays web developers can choose from a great number of ready-made technologies instead of developing everything from scratch. However, web development technologies have evolved much in the past 20 years. Due to the increased complexity and diversity of the alternatives, it is getting more and more difficult for companies to make an overall good choice of technologies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that usually do not have resources to make a thorough research before choosing. This thesis creates WeTS - Web Technology Stack Guidelines, which contains three parts: process, algorithm and software quality characteristics. By following WeTS, inexperienced web developers, especially in SMEs, can select web technology stacks in an optimal way. Meanwhile, WeTS could be used for experienced practitioners and researchers as a reference to have an overview about modern web development technologies. Based on WeTS Guidelines, this thesis evaluated a number of technology stacks. Then a case study was performed with a startup company named Sqore. By comparing WeTS with Sqore’s technology selection process step by step, this thesis evaluated WeTS Guidelines.