Archives for the tag "processes"

Technology won’t fix a bad strategy

July 15, 2010 · Posted in Content Strategies, Requirements, content management  

Successful technology implementations all share a common denominator: a strong content strategy.

CMS Facts and Myths, and Why Process is So Important

June 18, 2010 · Posted in content management  

Ensure that you’re not left holding the bag when the CMS vendor has left the building; get your processes in place.

Underestimating the “yes but” factor

November 29, 2009 · Posted in Web development, management  

The “yes but” factors can ruin a project if stakeholders dig in their heels to protect their territory.

CMS selection practices need maturation

April 11, 2009 · Posted in Events, content management  

Janus Boye, a content management analyst whose skills I have long admired, recently posted an article Is Corruption [in the CM industry] an Issue? In it, he discusses some of the ways that vendors inadvertently, or purposefully, incent buyers to favour their products. I believe that this is just the tip of the iceberg, as [...]

Strategies for adopting structured content

March 17, 2009 · Posted in Content Development  

Here is the slide deck from my DocTrain West presentation, Before You Touch the Tools: Strategies for Adopting Structured Content. The presentation focused on figuring out the type of structure you’d want to use and why, how to sell the implementation to your budget-holding (and other) stakeholders, and tips and tricks for a successful implementation.

Non-technical issues during CMS implementations — TechCraft

March 1, 2009 · Posted in content management  

TechCraft, the online newsletter aimed at technical writers in India and the Asia Pacific region, has just published Volume 40, with an article of mine on understanding some of the non-technical issues that arise during the implementation of a content management system, and how to address them. Understanding how disruptive this technology change can be [...]

Taxonomy considerations in component content management

January 6, 2009 · Posted in Content classification and findability, content management  

Organizing your files within a component content management sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s not that simple. The temptation is to recreate your existing file structure, with the high-level structure consisting of something like: Level 1: Product Line Level 1: Product Line > Level 2: Product Name Level 1: Product Line > Level 2: Product [...]

Using topic-based writing to meet aggressive deadlines

September 8, 2008 · Posted in Content Development  

What happens on a project where the client needs a tremendous amount of content produced within an extremely tight timeline?

Caveat emptor – cautions when choosing a CMS

February 26, 2008 · Posted in content management  

A couple of years ago, I was ambushed by an IT manager who called me into a meeting and put me head-to-head with a Gartner Group CMS analyst whose agenda seemed to be to discredit me as a CMS consultant. The idea was that the Gartner Group analyst would criticize the CMS choices on my [...]