Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Fixing the broken chair...
Over the next week or so I'll move the non-governance posts to this new blog (or bog).
Friday, March 20, 2009
An easy to follow articale on intranet strategy
A great summary of the principles of strategy in an easy to follow form. Also buried in the second para is another plug for good governance. Notice how the strategy links objectives with measures (KPI).
Monday, January 19, 2009
The principles of content strategy
- The Discipline of Content Strategy by Kristina Halvorson
- Content Strategy: The Philosophy of Data by Rachel Lovinger
- Link strategy with audience; particular the interactive elements
- Argue for a holistic approach which draws together the different web design activities together with content.
This neatly highlighted the weakness of over compartmentalising the various web management activities. Activities such as; a discoverability strategy, an IA, a UCD methodology, a CMS, etc, need to be linked and contextualised to be effective. A content strategy could be an approach to this. However, I’m not entirely convinced that creating another formal web discipline, the ‘Content Strategist’ is really helpful or necessary.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
The ANAO highlights the importance of governance
A recently published review on the management of Commonwealth web sites by the ANAO has in my mind confirmed many of the themes raised in this blogg. From my initial reading the majority of the findings and recommendations are tied closely to how agencies approach governance of their web activities. Summarising the summary, the report suggests that Commonwealth agencies:
- Clarify the purpose of their web sites, ensure these align with business goals, and review this periodically
- Extend risk management planning to include web sites
- Improve the management content through a combination of; periodic review, better defining responsibilities and implementing supporting business process
- Monitor and report on the cost of websites
The full details of the report
Government Agencies’ Management of their Websites, The Auditor General - Audit Report No.13 2008–09, Australian National Audit Office, 2008
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Why measuring performance is important
Measuring Your Web Site's Return on Investment: Whoever isn't measuring ROI on their Web site is crazy, because it is measurable (Mary K. Pratt, May 07)
Key premises of the article is measuring ROI on websites can be an effective method of assessing performance as well as improving in decisions making. Some relevant points:
- Use ROI as a way of defining what is important to the company – don’t just measure everything
- For ROI to be a useful business objectives of the site must be understood
- ROI is useful for comparing ‘what if’ situations and considering the impact of decisions that are outside of the web site, i.e. cost on other parts the business.
This blog discussed why good governance of the web analytics is important. The post also includes some examples of how various organisation are approaching governance of analytics. Interesting points include:
- What is measured needs to match the web site strategies
- A lack of governance for the analytic activities can mean inconstant measurement
- Web analytics governance model should be a subset of the general governance structure, with a steering committee charged with the task of defining expectations, granting power and verifying performance.
Some examples of Web Governance
Governance - more than just a policy manual
- Effective governance covers too many areas to be easily assigned to one team or areas
- Codify expertise and rules into business process
- Use an evidence based approach to decision making