Metamodeling to Control and Audit E-Commerce Web Applications

• Published in: International journal of electronic commerce Vol. 17; no. 1; pp. 83 - 118
• Main Authors: Huang, Shi-Ming, Hua, Jing-Shiuan, Will, Hartmut, Wu, Jhen-Wei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 01.10.2012; M. E. Sharpe, Inc; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Auditing procedures; Business audits; Consumer goods industries; Customer service; Design; E-commerce audit; Electronic commerce; Hyperlinks; Internal audits; Internal controls; Management audits; metamodeling; model checking; process consistency; Quality control; Studies; Web application; Web pages
• ISSN: 1086-4415; 1557-9301
• DOI: 10.2753/JEC1086-4415170104

With the increasing popularity of e-commerce, the growth potential of business is extraordinary; however, the path toward success can also be dangerous because of problems of quality control, security breaches, and e-service failures. One of the problems is that business managers generally lack sufficient assurance that the controls over e-processes are effective and efficient and that information announced to customers is correct and reliable. Powerful metamodeling is therefore required. The objective of this research is to develop an e-process audit mechanism by applying automatic model checking to check consistency between e-process flows implemented and those originally designed; to detect errors in the structure and contents of Web applications; and to assist the internal control and assurance managers with their frequent monitoring of the internal controls of Web applications. A prototype has been developed to evaluate the feasibility of the mechanism and has been applied in a real e-commerce case. The results show that it proved useful for the internal control and assurance purposes in the case company.