People, Process, Technology
Best Practices in Selecting, Implementing, and Managing CMS
Presented by Joseph Bachana @
June6/15/2008
17, 2008
© 2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.

Why Bother with Project Mgmnt?
— What’ s 20/20 Vision? Foresight!
— Common Playbook
— Reduce Variability Where Possible
— Anticipate Stuff Happening
©2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.

The Key Disciplines
1. Defining Team Roles
2. Optimizing Processes
3. Develop and Enhance Support Materials
4. Procurement Planning
5. CMS Implementation Standards
6. Operational Playbook
©2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.

1. Create the CMS Team
— Standard Roles
• Infrastructure Support Personnel (Operations)
• Site Administrator (Configuration)
• Information Architect/Functional Analyst
• Designer (Templates, UI, behaviors, etc)
• Project Manager/Coordinator
• Developer
• Editor
• Producer
• Trainer
• Support Personnel
©2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.

2. Optimize Processes
— Agree on Project Management System
• Organizational PM Guidebook
• Change Management Plan
• Communication Plan
• Risk Management Plan
• Standard PM Sequencing for CMS Projects
— Train Staff in the System
©2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.

Detail: Risk Management
— Expect the unexpected
— Preemptively define issues + opportunities
— Understand potential hidden costs, work effort,
duration, or quality changes
— Define mitigation, elimination, or avoidance
strategies up front
Assess costs for these strategies up front
©2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.

Detail: Risk Identification
— Nominal Group Technique
— Risk Threshold
©2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.

Detail: Identifying The Risk
— Cause
— Risk
— Effect
©2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.

Detail: What to Track
— Probability
— Impact
• Cost $
• Work Effort
• Duration
• Quality
• User/Management Acceptance
©2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.

Detail: Risk ‘ Metadata’
— Occurrence (WBS)
— Categorization
— Mitigation/Elimination/Avoidance Strategy-(ies)
— Risk Status (Open, Realized, Closed)
— Risk Owner
©2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.

Detail: Continued Management
— Risks should be managed and updated weekly
— Risk Owner must monitor their assigned open
risks continually
— Risk Identification as an ongoing activity
©2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.

Detail: Risk Areas for Web CMS
— IT systems & continuity
— Vendor/Product Management
— User Adoption (Change management)
— Integration with other systems
©2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.

3. Create Support Materials
— Project Template Toolkit
• Requirements Matrices (Templates)
• IA and Wireframe best practice templates
• Project Charter template
• Change Control Form
• MS Project template (or similar product)
• Other standard templates
— Standard Checklists
— QA Plan + System
— Communication Portal
©2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.

4. Procurement Planning
— Coarse Filter
— Vendor Competency
— Fine Filter
— Demo Script
— Technical Audit
— (If Time) Proof of Concept
— Reference Checks
— Negotiation
©2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.

5. Implementation Standards I
— Inputs:
• Management Expectations –Business Model
• Stakeholder interviews
• IT interview
— Outputs: Project charter, coarse filters,
preliminary budget(s)
— Checkpoint: Go-Forward Approval
©2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.

Implementation II
— Inputs:
• Design/Behaviors
• Functional Specifications
• Third Party Products
— Outputs: Wireframes, Information Architecture +
Navigation
— Checkpoint: Go-Forward Approval
©2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.

Implementation III
— Inputs:
• Completed Comps/Design
• Completed IA
• Content Type definition
• Access Controls Definition (Roles/Permissions)
• Rights Policy(ies)
• Controlled Vocabulary Definition(s)
— Output: Technical Specifications,
Content Migration Plan, Taxonomies
— Checkpoint: Go-Forward Approval
©2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.

Implementation IV
— Project Management, Not Monitoring (EVM!)
— Risk Management/Control
— Change Management/Control
— Communication Plan Management/Control
— Developers: Unit, Integration Testing, QA
— Stakeholders: Usability Testing, Alpha Tests
— Customer: Beta Tests
Outcome: Managing S-C-WE-D-Q
©2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.

6. Operational Playbook
— Rapid Protocols for Feature Requests
— Transparency for Issue resolution (Systematized)
— Protocols for internal producer/editor support
— Escalation procedures with vendor
— Escalation procedures with hosting provider
(internal or external)
— Documented Design Template Standards
— Governance (SEO, R&P, DAM/DRM, etc)
©2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.

End of Presentation
Question/Response Period
For additional supporting materials,
info@databasepublish.com
Blog: www.databasepublish.com/blog/jbachana
©2008 DPCI. All Rights Reserved.