CMS Implementation: Things to do before writing a single line of code
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Transcript of CMS Implementation: Things to do before writing a single line of code
Things to do before writing a single line of code
Did you know…
30% of all content management system implementations fail*
* Source: http://www.amazon.com/Managing-Enterprise-Content-Unified-Strategy/dp/032181536X
Most CMS implementations fail because neither business or technology truly understood how the solution will be put to use
Strategy Soft skillsTechnical Expertise
WhatA great starting point is a Google Design Sprint but to make sure you really do a good job a lengthier upfront phase might be needed
Strategic hires and engagements and training will make a world of difference
Learn to express yourself in a language that others understand or create contracts that all agree on and adhere to.
Because you shouldn’t go into a CMS build blind. Having upfront analysis and design to define how a tool will be used and how it’s success will be measured is NOT against agile!
Why Because you need the ability to answer difficult questions quickly and correctly. Choosing a CMS tool is step one, getting the right expertise is a must
Because talking to people is always far more effective than emails and chat clients. CMS’ are complex systems that require input and output from many different people that don’t always have the same background
WhoDon’t make the mistake that this is just a business exercise. Involve development, design and marketing in the process
Developers with hands-on experience, content technologists to guide the solution and vendor consultants to answer the tough ones!
Everyone
What can be done to ensure a successful CMS experience?
If nothing more do these three things
Establish a strong content strategy that
ties in with your overall brand strategy
Chose your technology wisely as
not everything bleeding-edge is the right tool for the job.
Wherever possible select ‘boring’ technologies
Deliver a great experience but not just for your end-
users but also your content authors -
they will be the ones that will judge your
work
DeliverChose
Think
The path to CMS success starts with a good content strategy
User Insights
Content Types
Content Relationships
Content Models
Taxonomy and
Metadata
Content Strategy
What do we need to do?
- Identify the scope of your analysis
- Customer needs analysis
- Understand business objectives
- Identify all the content types and their relationships
- Identify current publication processes
- Identify success criteria
What are we going to get?
- Content Model - a collection of content patterns (not only design) that will form the basis of a contract between designers, developers and marketeers. Think of this as the what that goes inside a component
- Content Taxonomy - in order for your content to be useful and easily discoverable you need to define it’s taxonomy (hierarchical structure)
- Content Lifecycle - a process that defines the governance around content management from the inception of creating a content instance (based on a content model) all the way to it’s archiving
Chose your technology wisely
Assuming you opted in the Adobe Marketing Cloud
- Chose ‘boring’* technologies and designs where possible
- Don’t go on developer quests*
- When things hit a snag (and they will) don’t fall back on your ‘default’ knowledge
* Boring technologies and methodologies are tried and tested in the real world and work well with your tool of choice
** Developer quests are situations where developers will do everything in their power to prove that something is possible
What do we need to do?
- Learn to love Sling - it will be your new best friend in no time
- Plan your client libraries structure and hierarchy
- Prefer etc mapping over custom link rewriters
- Plan your markup for targeting and A/B testing
- Consider your integration patterns
What are we going to get?
- A flexible platform that enables and empowers users NOT developers
- A blueprint for system interoperability
- A common set of guidelines for current and new developers
- A multi-tenant ready system
Educate your content authors
- Because the way you understand the system may not be ‘common knowledge’
- The content author is the most important user to you
- Their experience will directly impact the outcome of the implementation
What do we need to do?
- Include the content authors in the analysis and design phase to inform your solution design
- Make author sign-off part of your ‘done’ criteria
- Be prepared for the requirements to change (refer to the ‘boring’ technologies)
- Educate the content authors on the platform and ways to use it
What are we going to get?
- Greater author buy-in - if they are comfortable about the tool they need to use they will actually use it rather than look for reasons not to
- More consistence author experience - when the user interface is tailored* to the people that interact with it, common patterns emerge
- A better platform to communicate a consistent message to the end users - this involves enabling content authors to not only create and present the right content but also to present it to the right individual at the right time
* Tailored to the best of the platforms abilities. Don’t push the platform to it’s breaking point, educate the authors instead
In conclusion
- Having a content strategy will establish a contract between design, development and content management that will provide consistent means of communication of ideas, requirements and solutions
- Making decisions about your technical approach before you start delivering is a great way to ensure consistency in your technical approach and mitigate against situations where developers fall back to ‘safe’ knowledge
- POCing and validating by experimenting with code is still very much encouraged practice
- Work with your content authors and data analysts to understand their needs and challenges promotes buy-in and usage uptake resulting in higher chances of project success
Questions?
