methodologies are generic and can be altered according to the specific requirements set for this project.
They are not strict rules, which should be followed as they are. A website development methodology will
ensure better tracking of the progress and better organization of the work to be done. Additionally, the
advice of the supervising professor was also favorable towards using a methodology that would be the
guideline through all the stages of the dissertation.
3. RESEARCH METHODS
3.1. Project Overview
The technical challenges of designing and developing an e-Business web page are only one aspect of
this project. Major part of the project is to acquire the desired knowledge, skills and experience to build an
e-business website, based on the examination and analysis of user requirements and market needs.
The main idea is to create a dedicated website that would provide employment services to IT
students and graduates as well as to potential employers from the IT sector, which assumes a basic seekerprovider
model. This website will allow IT students/graduates and potential employers to have access to a
dedicated website, consisting of students/graduates seeking jobs and employers who provide them. The
site will hold details of job vacancies in a database and will allow searches to match seekers with providers.
The website will be controlled by an organization (the Business) intended to be separate from both
students and employers. Students and employers will only access their parts of the website and can only
communicate with the e-Business.
3.2. Project Objectives
The final deliverable of the project is an IT employment website, which, in general terms, is described
in section 3.1. Project Overview, along with a detailed report of the methodology that will be applied.
However, there are some vital objectives, which should be accomplished, in order to allow the completion
of the project. These are:
Conduct thorough problem investigation, which involves literature review, stakeholder analysis and
evaluation and comparison of similar websites. This is the only way to understand the wider context of
the problem, identify the target audience of the website, find out how other IT employment websites
work, and discover possible gaps in the IT employment market. This will lead to a preliminary e-Business
proposal.
Come up with an innovative proposal that aims to fill the identified gaps of the market. This will be the
basis for a dedicated website tailored to the needs of the stakeholders.
Investigate and understand market research methods. Compare their advantages and disadvantages in
order to choose the right one for testing the feasibility of the initial e-Business proposal with various
stakeholders.
Compare various e-Business models in order to choose the most suitable to use as the basis to make the
business case for the proposal.
Understand the strong and weak points of several website development methods and pick the
methodology that will be the guideline of the project.
3.3. Project Plan
The project will be completed in three phases. The first one consists of the literature review and the
critical analysis of relevant work. The goal of this phase is to understand the problem of creating a
successful e-Business as a whole and set the framework that will guide the development process. This
Background Report is the main deliverable of this phase. The second phase is the development process.
During this phase the proposed methodology, which is presented above(section 3.5. Project Methodology),
will be followed, in order to systematically create the IT employment e-Business. The key deliverable of this
phase is a fully implemented, working website, which would offer the desired employment services to the
stakeholders. The third and last phase of the project is the writing of the dissertation thesis, which would