The document outlines requirements for a content management system (CMS), including requirements for development capabilities, asset support, workflow, project management, versioning, templating, deployment, third party integration, reliability and security, and user interfaces. It lists over 100 specific requirements across these categories that a CMS would need to meet, such as supporting concurrent development, branching, workflows, versioning, templating, deployment, security, and integration with other tools and systems.

1. Lecture Notes – Content Management System Requirements Checklist –
Prepared by Sukh Sandhu
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(Check whichever is applicable)
Web Development Capabilities Mandatory Highly Desirable
Desirable (but
Optional)
Development and Quality Assurance
Must support a develop, stage and deploy
framework
Must support branching to allow for co-
development of parallel site
Must support the concept of separate user
environments for development
Must support concurrent development of
assets (e.g. asset locking)
Must be an open architecture
Must provide a way for contributors to QA
their own work
Must provide a way to snapshot current
development for standards review.
Must provide private work areas for non-
disruptive Web development
Must have ability to compare a file to any
of its previous versions
Must provide for commenting

2. Must have HTML merge capability
Must have global search and replace
Page | 2 Must have automated content scheduling
(for both publishing and archiving)
Asset Support Capability
Must be able to support database assets
Must be able to automatically sync
database and file system content
Must support existing file system assets to
eliminate content retrofit
Must support rules-based search against
all meta-tagged assets
Must fully support streaming media
Must provide portal-style in-line asset
commands for personalisation
Must have the ability to deliver content in
different formats (ie PDF, word, audio,
video)
Workflow
Must have a clearly defined procedure that
ensures that records are identified and
captured into a recordkeeping system
Must support designated agency approvals

3. processes
Must contain a graphical user interface to
build workflows
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Must support iterative loop backs for
rejected changes
Must support flexible workflow definition
to capture existing process
Must support task-based workflow (ie
creation, editing, approval)
Must support metadata integration for
configurable ‘smart’ workflows
Must support modifiable task attributes
Must support nested workflows
Must support rules-based Workflow
Registration
Must allow users to view tasks assigned to
them
Must have the ability for Managers to
monitor tasks and initiate follow-ups
Must allow automated notifications of tasks
to be performed
Project Management
Must support parallel development streams
Must support instant creation of separate

4. development environment.
Must support reporting via standard
reports or customisable reports
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Must support workflow tracking and
monitoring
Versioning and Rollback Capability
Ability to version complete sites not just
components
Ability to rollback to previous version of
sites
Ability to log and monitor changes to site
components
Ability to rollback to previous version of
site components
Must display status of files and folders
Must have change tracking and the creation
of audit trails
Templating
Must support content for re-use
During content entry, contributors must be
able to manipulate content elements
Must be able to support customised
components within the page generation

5. engine
Ability to standardise content according to
business rules
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Must separate Form from Content
Must support pre-generated pages for
increased scalability and performance
Must support on-the-fly pages
Must support the nesting of templates
Must support variable binding
Must have metadata management facilities
Must support the ability for users to add to
templates
Must provide browser based GUI
Must provide URL-Based Templating
Deployment Capability
Must provide high security during
deployment
Must be able to flexibly re-map directories
during deployment
Must support transactional deployment for
rollback for both database and filesystem
assets
Must be able to deploy files, databases and
code synchronously

6. Must be able to schedule automatic
deployment to production server
Must be able to move database tables from
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staging to production
Must support incremental and transactional
deployment for database and filesystem
assets
Third party Integration and Customisation
Must support industry standard authoring
tools
Must supports all app servers & e-
Commerce engines
Must be able to customise application for
integration
Must support automatic link checking
Must support automated split-up of long
documents
Must have full attribute and content
searching
Open to any personalisation technology
Must be able to leverage existing
enterprise resources through seamless
process and application integration

7. Reliability, Availability, and Security
Must support 128-bit encryption, peer to
peer authentication
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Must contain functions to make the most
efficient use of available storage space
Must support load balancing, system
failover and session management
capabilities
Must support role-based privileges in
development
Must support reporting (including usage
analysis)
User Interfaces
Must be able to support seamless
integration with Microsoft Office Tools
(Word, Excel, etc.) and Lotus Notes
applications
Must have an easy to use interface with
user id, password and role
Users must have the ability to personalize
their interface
Must allow non-technical contributors to
contribute with minimal training
Must support a file system interface -
supports any front end editing tool
Must be scalable to meet growing volume

8. of users
Must have Agency platform compatibility
Must have Agency browser support
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