pathfinding in the cms jungle nercomp 2005 rich garcia, mit jay collier, dartmouth cecilia marra,...
TRANSCRIPT
Pathfinding in the CMS Jungle
NERCOMP 2005
Rich Garcia, MIT
Jay Collier, Dartmouth
Cecilia Marra, MIT
Copyright notice
Copyright Richard Garcia, Jay F. Collier, and Cecilia Marra, 2005. This work is the intellectual property of the authors. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the authors. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the authors.
The old days
One author writes the page Author uses own personal style preferences Publish it once Update it rarely Wysiwyg editors made it easy
Now
W3C standards Professional appearance Branding Unified look and feel Frequent content editing Life cycles Coordination of multiple authors Etc., etc.
Products to the rescue—maybe
Content Management Systems by the score Different feature sets Hosted or local installation Licensing and maintenance fees Platform requirements
And more Advertised as CMS, but really do different things Blogs, discussion boards, knowledge management
systems
Oops!
Doesn't meet users' needs. Too difficult to use. Too expensive to maintain. No one to call when something goes wrong. Extra features aren't really needed. Incompatible with other software products,
hardware platforms, etc.
The fuzzy front end
“The biggest mistakes in any large system design are usually made on the first day.”
Robert SpinradVice President, Xerox Corp.
Pathfinding
A process called Discovery
What it is
A defined, consistent methodology applied to every project proposal
Thoroughly investigate project proposals before they start Bring project management discipline to the front end of
every project Asks the questions:
Should we be doing this at all? If so, what will it take to make this project a success?
Areas of investigation
Feasibility Cost Cost-benefit Staffing Integration into the IT
environment Alignment with IT
strategic vision
Support/maintenance requirements
Staff impacts Customer needs and
impact Product requirements Roll-out strategy
The Discovery methodology
Find a project sponsor Write a charter Put together a team Find out what customers really need Evaluate possible solutions against customers'
needs Present recommendations to sponsor
Part 2
What Dartmouth Discovered
CMS Discovery 2002
Pre-discovery goalsDiscovery environmentDiscovery methodologyFinal recommendationDiscovery outcomeLessons learned
Pre-discovery goals
Evolution (not revolution) of current processesIncremental, phased implementationMust be sustained by current staffFuture scalability must be considered
Discovery environment
Existing client rosterDefined cost rangeDefined delivery infrastructurePermanent program already in place
Discovery methodology
Based on MIT modelCovered same breadth with less depthClients: survey for requested featuresColleagues: professional best practicesRank features: nominal group techniqueMatch solutions to features
Final recommendation
Matched top client needsFell within cost range for both initial and sustaining costsMaintenance tasks were within program staff skill setBuilt on existing infrastructure and operations
Outcome (1)
Sponsor approved deployment of recommended solutionDeployment occurred with few problemsAll authoring was distributed to content expertsMultiple-stage content approval process was added, as requested
Outcome (2)
Client roster doubled in 18 months with no additional staffSuccess of discovery process has raised awareness of methodology
Lessons learned
Careful definition of scope and sustainability of utmost priorityCommitted sponsor and client roster must buy in to discoveryEvolution of existing workflows makes success more likely
Part 3
What MIT Discovered
How it began
First came demand Next came defining the tool
Q: When is a Knowledgebase not a Knowledgebase? A: When it’s a Content Management System.
Both need flexible tools for workflow, lifecycleWhen search and retrieval matter a little less, and
presentation matters a little more Then came the Discovery Project Team
Gathering information from the MIT community
Web survey
Focus groups
Hands-on demo
CMS Truths -- The Product
No one product will suit all community needs. Standards compliance matters. The product should talk to other MIT systems. Templates must be easy to use and revise. "Vanilla” CMS templates are a no-go. Authors must be able to preview their content. Customers want control of the application. Many open source products have similar capabilities.
CMS Truths -- The Customers
No product can eliminate author personalities, nor can it make content magically appear.
The learning curve must be shallow. ‘Nuff said.
All products require a knowledgeable web site administrator
CMS Truths -- The Process:
A CMS is not a substitute for a business process. A CMS can support a process but can not force compliance. Well-defined business processes offer the most promise for
success. Excessively complex processes will require custom-built
tools. Workflow must be adaptable, or workarounds arise.
Customers need to be able to remove steps/layers of approval as needed.
The ever-changing CMS space
No strong leader in the Higher Ed vertical University Web Developers listserv Educause Web User Group archives CMS web sites and other on-line resources
The rules of elimination Functional Requirements Technical Requirements
Special considerations
Open Source Had to build in order to test Will those technologies be the way of the
future? Will the developer community stay vital?
How do you develop and “sell” an opt-in enterprise offering?
And the winners are:
An open-source product: Lenya An ASP-model proprietary product: Atomz A desktop authoring tool: Contribute
Training Added web server tools and services
Where are we now?
Works in Progress Piloting Contribute and adding
services to Athena Seeking customers for Lenya Follow up on Atomz
Key Learnings
Our conclusions are unique: Cultural environment Computing environment Customer requirements
Methodology is universal
Further Information
MIT's CMS report:web.mit.edu/ist/discovery/content-mgmt/report.html
Dartmouth's CMS report:www.dartmouth.edu/goto/webcmsdiscovery
The Discovery Process:web.mit.edu/ist/discovery
Our addresses
Rich Garcia: [email protected] Jay Collier: [email protected] Cecilia Marra: [email protected]