Meta trend: During 2002/03, organizations will exploit portal architecture and Web services principles, layering component interfaces onto applications and data via different object models (EJB, .Net) and XML. Through 2003, Web teams will evolve as best-practice advocacy groups (e.g., Web site globalization). Through 2006, Web architects will adopt a platform approach, in which applications leverage common services that are connected, aggregated, and personalized via portal frameworks.
The enterprise portal market will be three years old in 2002. This has provided a sufficient history of portal framework implementations to reveal common problems encountered by these projects. A review of first-generation portal attempts confirms the importance of the six-step portal-planning process outlined previously.
Indeed, each of the 10 most common portal pitfalls can be linked directly back to a failure to properly execute one of these six steps. Currently, the two most common pitfalls that have emerged are technically adept portals that are never accepted by the enterprise and failure of a portal due to a lack of supporting infrastructure (generally directory or security services).
