Getting Your Specs in a Row – Confab EDU – Atlanta GA, 2014-11-14
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Your college is getting a new CMS and they want your input. Best day ever! But here’s the thing: Most large, modern CMSes have hugely overlapping feature sets. Vendors will take one look at any list of feature requirements and tell you that their system can handle all of them with its eyes closed. So when making your recommendations, nuance is critical. The good news? You don’t need to be a CMS expert to give meaningful input. You DO need to know how to identify your key content management needs and communicate them to decision-makers in an effective way.
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Getting Your Specs in a Row – Confab EDU – Atlanta GA, 2014-11-14
- 1. Your role in CMS selection Kerry-Anne Gilowey Confab Higher Ed · Atlanta · 14 November 2014 Getting Your Specs In a Row @kerry_anne
- 2. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
- 3. This is Myra
- 4. This is Myra She’s excited.
- 5. This is Myra Her university is getting a new CMS.
- 6. This is Myra Her university is getting a new CMS.
- 7. This is Myra They want her input!
- 8. This is Myra They want her input!
- 16. Myra’s rollercoaster ride Despair Excitement Uncertainty Blind panic Fear Self-doubt Confusion
- 17. “Ideally, a content strategist is on board at the very start of a CMS project.” Paula Land Strategic Content LLC
- 22. You’re not a CMS expert. So what?
- 23. Content management is the systematic planning, development, organisation, distribution, evaluation, and preservation of all information within an organisation. Erik M. Hartman @erikmhartman
- 24. Content management is the SYSTEMATIC PLANNING, development, organisation, distribution, evaluation, and preservation of all information within an organisation. Erik M. Hartman @erikmhartman
- 25. Content management is the systematic planning, DEVELOPMENT, organisation, distribution, evaluation, and preservation of all information within an organisation. Erik M. Hartman @erikmhartman
- 26. Content management is the systematic planning, development, ORGANISATION, distribution, evaluation, and preservation of all information within an organisation. Erik M. Hartman @erikmhartman
- 27. Content management is the systematic planning, development, organisation, DISTRIBUTION, evaluation, and preservation of all information within an organisation. Erik M. Hartman @erikmhartman
- 28. Content management is the systematic planning, development, organisation, distribution, EVALUATION, and preservation of all information within an organisation. Erik M. Hartman @erikmhartman
- 29. Content management is the systematic planning, development, organisation, distribution, evaluation, and PRESERVATION of all information within an organisation. Erik M. Hartman @erikmhartman
- 30. Content management is the systematic planning, development, organisation, distribution, evaluation, and preservation OF ALL INFORMATION within an organisation. Erik M. Hartman @erikmhartman
- 31. CONTENT MANAGEMENT is the systematic planning, development, organisation, distribution, evaluation, and preservation of all information within an organisation. Erik M. Hartman @erikmhartman
- 32. You’ve got this.
- 33. GATHER Your role is to... content requirements
- 34. UNDERSTAND Your role is to... content requirements
- 35. PRIORITISE Your role is to... content requirements
- 36. COMMUNICATE Your role is to... content requirements
- 37. Your role is NOT to... know the feature set of every CMS in existence, be able to recommend the best system, know all the technical ins and outs of CMS integration, know what Gartner thinks about all these CMSes, know how your CMS will integrate with the other platforms your institution is using, understand what hardware is required to run
- 38. What should you focus on?
- 39. Information architecture What should you focus on?
- 40. Information architecture Metadata What should you focus on?
- 41. Information architecture Metadata Authoring and review What should you focus on?
- 42. Information architecture Metadata Authoring and review Governance What should you focus on?
- 43. Information architecture Metadata Authoring and review Governance Analytics and reporting What should you focus on?
- 44. Information architecture Metadata Authoring and review Governance Analytics and reporting Publishing and distribution What should you focus on?
- 52. 2. METADATA
- 53. Metadata
- 54. Metadata
- 55. Metadata
- 56. Metadata
- 57. Metadata
- 58. 3. AUTHORING AND REVIEW
- 65. 4. GOVERNANCE
- 66. Governance
- 67. Governance
- 68. Governance
- 69. Governance
- 70. Governance
- 71. Governance
- 72. 5. ANALYTICS AND REPORTING
- 77. 6. PUBLISHING AND DISTRIBUTION
- 83. Three words: nuance, nuance, nuance
- 87. “Do not simply select vendors in the Leaders quadrant; vendors from the Challengers, Niche Players or Visionaries quadrants may better match your business goals and requirements.” Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management, August 2010
- 88. CMS 5 CMS 2 CMS 3 CMS 6 CMS 7 CMS 9 CMS 10 CMS 1 CMS 4 CMS 8
- 89. “Dear CMS vendor, can your CMS do XYZ?”
- 90. “Dear CMS vendor, can your CMS do XYZ?”
- 91. “DEAR CMS VENDOR, CAN your CMS do XYZ?”
- 92. “DEAR CMS VENDOR, HOW DOES your CMS do XYZ?”
- 93. Traditional requirements- gathering PROCESSES are problematic.
- 95. Discovery Getting at the information you need.
- 96. Run group workshops Image credit: www.flickr.com/photos/australianshepherds
- 97. Do one-on-one sessions Image credit: www.flickr.com/photos/levendis
- 98. The questions How to get the most out of your workshop and interview sessions.
- 99. Process and workflow Who are the authors? Who are the reviewers? What are the workflow paths? Where are the bottlenecks? What tools are being used now?
- 100. Other existing systems Are we going to keep using them? What content needs to be pulled in? What content needs to be pushed? In what format? Who is responsible?
- 101. Other new systems What new systems need to be integrated? What content needs to be pulled in? What content needs to be pushed? In what format?
- 102. Prioritising needs CMS selection is a series of trade-offs.
- 103. How does this feed into our overall business and content strategy? Image credit: www.flickr.com/photos/tambako
- 104. What happens if we don’t have this feature/ functionality? Image credit: www.flickr.com/photos/photolibrarian
- 105. What are we prepared to give up to have this feature/ functionality? Image credit: www.flickr.com/photos/annabelb
- 107. Pretty up your spreadsheet Charlie Peverett (@cpev) quoting a colleague Dare Conference 2014
- 110. Explain WHY Image credit: www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank
- 111. Discuss compromises
- 113. LACK OF INTERNAL SKILLS Reasons to compromise
- 114. LEGACY SYSTEMS LACK OF INTERNAL SKILLS Reasons to compromise
- 116. SYSTEM DEPENDENCIES TECHNOLOGY STACK LEGACY SYSTEMS LACK OF INTERNAL SKILLS Reasons to compromise
- 117. SYSTEM DEPENDENCIES TECHNOLOGY STACK LEGACY SYSTEMS PLATFORM CHOICE LACK OF INTERNAL SKILLS Reasons to compromise
- 118. SYSTEM DEPENDENCIES TECHNOLOGY STACK INTEGRATION EFFORT LEGACY SYSTEMS PLATFORM CHOICE LACK OF INTERNAL SKILLS Reasons to compromise
- 119. SYSTEM DEPENDENCIES TECHNOLOGY STACK INTEGRATION EFFORT LEGACY SYSTEMS PLATFORM CHOICE LACK OF INTERNAL SKILLS LICENSING COSTS Reasons to compromise
- 121. Don’t be IDEALISTIC. You’ll end up miserable.
- 122. Be willing to ask questions Image credit: www.flickr.com/photos/audiolucistore
- 123. Devise use cases Image credit: www.flickr.com/photos/vegard
- 124. Putting it in writing A spreadsheet the whole team will love.
- 125. ID* Category Weighting/100 Short name* The CMS should... Priority Explanation and extra notes Columns
- 126. Category and ID
- 127. Sample requirement Short name The CMS should... Explanation and further notes Reviewer role Offer a specialised reviewer role, with commenting/ annotation capability, but no editing capability. This is distinct from an editor role - an editor can edit content inline; a reviewer can't edit inline, but can annotate content with comments.
- 129. Putting it all together
- 130. Let’s go over that again...
- 131. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A CMS EXPERT.
- 132. SPEAK TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN.
- 133. IDENTIFY, UNDERSTAND, AND PRIORITISE CONTENT NEEDS.
- 135. BE PREPARED TO COMPROMISE.
- 136. ASK QUESTIONS.
- 139. Thanks for listening! Kerry-Anne Gilowey kerryanne@augustsun.co.za http://augustsun.co.za · http://about.me/kerryanne @kerry_anne