Overhyped, underperforming tools will result in a flat-to-shrinking market for Web services tools this year, a market research firm reported Monday.

Revenue from Web-services tools is expected to reach $5 billion, a fraction of the $750 billion forecast for overall IT spending on development tools this year, the Aberdeen Group said.

"Over-focus on 3GLs, standards, reusability, formalism, and quick-and-dirty implementations of E-business functionality have led to decreased programmer productivity, spaghetti architectures, and buggy and hard-to-upgrade code in many cases," Aberdeen analyst Wayne T. Kernochan said.

IT buyers are advised to carefully compare assembling best-of-breed toolsets from multiple suppliers with purchasing a one-size-fits-all product. In addition, IT departments looking to reduce coding and costs through outsourcing should fully understand the limitations of offshore programming, Kernochan said.

The increasing demand for Web services tools is expected to spur major suppliers to improve their development products. As a result, IT buyers will eventually see clearer choices as Web services development platforms evolve from major companies such as IBM, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems.

Major suppliers are expected to add functionality to their platforms in time through acquisitions. An example of this trend was IBM's recent purchase of Rational Software Corp.