A large number of web development efforts are directed towards creating web applications. Web applications garner a significant amount of users because of its interactive nature and how it serves several purposes that the users are looking for. Be it for entertainment such as gaming or for serious transactions such as banking and E-Commerce transactions, there are most probably a number of different web applications that can cater to this.
Web applications are dynamic websites which focuses more on interacting or transacting with users. Common examples of web applications are Social Networking, Interactive Games, Online Banking Systems, Electronic Commerce Applications and the like. Various technologies are used in web application development such as Ajax, ASP, ActionScript, CSS, Django, Drupal, HTML, Java, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, WordPress and many more. Web apps are not limited to these kinds of technologies. There are many different ways to finish a web application but mostly depends on what kind of web application that is being developed. To make it easier for the developers to finish up the app, there are life cycle models that they can use. The Web Applications Life Cycle Model depicts the stages of development of a web application and the involvement of development teams in the development process. The most popular among the models being followed is the System Development Life Cycle, SDLC, or the Agile Web Application Development Model (Agile). SDLC is the process of developing web applications by including research to identify and define the application requirements, information analysis, architectural design and specifications blueprint, team involvement, programming, testing and bug fixing, system testing, implementation and maintenance. On the other hand, Agile Web Application Development is the iterative development process and development process practices that focus on collaboration of people involved and provide a better procedure to allow revisions and evolution of web application requirements. Agile methodology focuses more on research, analysis, project management, design, programming, implementation, frequent testing, adaptation and maintenance. Web applications undergo the same unit, integration and system testing as traditional desktop applications. However, additional testing might also be performed such as security testing, performance testing, load testing, accessibility testing, usability testing and cross-browser testing.
The demands for companies to build web applications are growing substantially. Companies can gain more clients or have the opportunity to provide better services their current clients by offering convenient services and solutions online. This gives the business an edge over other competitors because potential customers will most likely choose companies that have an online services as it is obviously more convenient for them. If planned and built thoroughly, web applications can easily build business goodwill and assets based on audience reach, popularity, technology and potential growth.
