An easy to follow articale on intranet strategy

Found this today - Intranet strategy: planning a successful intranet

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).

The principles of content strategy

This post is probably moving to the outer edges of the discussion on web governance. However, I think there is relevance given the emphases I’ve placed in other posts on establishing strategy. Last week I stumbled on two interesting articles introducing the principles of content strategy.

1. The Discipline of Content Strategy by Kristina Halvorson
2. Content Strategy: The Philosophy of Data by Rachel Lovinger

I like how these articles:

• 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.

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:

1. Clarify the purpose of their web sites, ensure these align with business goals, and review this periodically
2. Extend risk management planning to include web sites
3. Improve the management content through a combination of; periodic review, better defining responsibilities and implementing supporting business process
4. 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

Why measuring performance is important

A number of the articles discussed in other post on this blog list measuring the performance of the organisations web activities as being important. I’ve found two articles that deal specifically with why measuring performance is valuable and how to approach governance for this important activity.

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.

Web analytics governance: who’s in charge? (Hurol Inan, Feb 08)
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

The site webcontent.gov has a section on web governance. I’ve discussed their definition of governance in an earlier post. Another useful resource is the sub-section of sample governance model. The most interesting of these is the International Trade Administration’s approach to web governance. What is strong about this particular model is it clearly establishes the notion of a web channel that encompasses both web content and web based applications.

Governance - more than just a policy manual

David Schatsky, in his first-rate article, Recipe for Web Site Governance, makes a strong case for were possible radically simplifying governance. The other powerful concept presented by David is governance is more than just a manual of standards and guidelines. He neatly introduces some very useful concept including:

1. Effective governance covers too many areas to be easily assigned to one team or areas
2. Codify expertise and rules into business process
3. Use an evidence based approach to decision making

The role of steering committees

Two articles I found advocated a web committee as an important element of effective governance. The organisation I work for used to have a web committee. Apparently this had been successful prior to being disbanded during a restructure a few years ago.

The first article, A tangled web we weaved: Who rules the site? Public affairs, the CIO or both? (Trudy Walsh, Feb 07) noted the emergence of a ‘representative governance structure’, which uses an ‘enterprise wide web council’ to manage areas such as standards, and coordinating and reorganising content;

The second excellent article, Traits of an Effective Web Steering Committee (Jason Burby, Mar 08), points out that ‘stand alone’ web groups encounter problems because for large companies the web now encompasses too many business functions and activities. A Web Steering Committee can be an effective means of balancing the various needs of the company. The committee should be seen as;

"as your board of directors for the Web channel -- senior people with a
strong overall company strategic focus. Its members should help look at
near-term success while also focusing on what's best long-term”

The article also goes on list the “Traits of a Successful, Healthy Web Steering Committee”. This is interesting because I think it covers some of the vital themes which have to be dealt with by effective governance activities. These include:

• Representation from all key groups
• Senior leadership from represented groups
• Methodology for measuring overall site performance
• Process for prioritizing initiatives based on business impact