Sustaining Web Content Management

November 8, 2005

High Ed Web Conference
Presentation (1.7 MB download)

Presentation outline

Know What You Want

Goal: Assure continuing success.
Process: Maximize the known and minimize the unknown.
Path: Iterate and validate to avoid unnecessary risks.
Principle: Sustain evolution of content management process over time.

Know the Emerging Trends

Ubiquitous and free Internet access.
Radically simple publishing.
Findability enhancements, increasing value of deep content.
Amateur collaboration and application-development environments.

Know Your Campus

Campus context.
Administration goals.
Web staff expertise.
Content developer assumptions.
Existing infrastructure systems.

Know Your Governance

Executive sponsor.
Advisory committee.
Direct supervisor.
Key clients.
Other important constituents.

Know Your Program

Marketing communications.
Information architecture.
Editorial and content development.
Design and interface.
System integration.

Know Your Finances

Leverage existing communications funding.
Identify clients for incremental developments.
Institutional support or cost recovery.
Vendor partnerships.

Know Your Staff

Department staff.
Clients/partners.
Campus Web professionals.
Independent contractors.

Know Your Discovery Process

Establish a discovery team.
Brainstorm and prioritize requirements (NGT).
Verify with initial vendors.
Custom demonstrations.
Input from advisory groups.
Final decision.

An Aside: NGT Ranking (1)

Brainstorm and organize features.
Have constituents rank all features, 1 to X.
Rank finalists against features (Y, N, ?).
Use results to pare down large vendor list to finalists.
Ask vendors to clarify information.

Know Your Deployment

Implement a live prototype.
Test all processes.
Finalize contract (go/no-go).
Phase two deployments.
Soft launch.
Implement with early adopters.

Know Your Next Steps

Formalize migration pipeline.
Document processes, including editorial guidelines.
Scale up campus collaboration.
Add support tools.
Increase quality assurance services.

Know Your Metrics

Session data and search analysis.
User feedback (Web forms).
User testing with a task orientation.
Commissioned constituent research.
Client satisfaction surveys.

Know When to Start Again

Production has settled into a regular routine.
Processes are established and running smoothly.
Problem escalation process is established.
Challenging migrations are complete.