Seven Steps to CMS

Christopher Rivard

Don't despair, there are ways to get organized when implementing a CMS.

1. Content Inventory

Prior to meeting with the client in an initial discovery or content strategy session, the web producer should create a spreadsheet of all assets existing on the current site, with columns to indicate:

• the filename of the content object (index.html, for example);
• the location of the content object in the existing site;
• and the type of content object (HTML, .PDF file).

Additionally, if the content will be migrated to the new site, indicate:

• the location where the content object will reside on the new site;
• the e-mail address and owner of the piece of content;
• and the date that the content was inventoried.

Compiling an inventory of existing content is the first step in determining the level of effort required to migrate content to the CMS and shed first light on content that may need to be created to support the business goals and user needs of the site. In recording this cursory look at the site content, you will get a better idea of how the content is organized and how the site was architected. This knowledge is indispensable and you may find yourself tumbling into a rabbit's hole of content that includes that past ten years of archived material. It is imperative that no stone is left unturned during the search for existing content.

2. Content Strategy Session

The content strategy session is an extremely effective way to map business goals, site content, and user needs in a goal-directed methodology. This four to six-hour session occurs after conducting a thorough inventory of the site content. In the content strategy session, the facilitator will lead a meeting of project stakeholders, content developers, and web managers through a deconstruction of the existing Web site in order to map business goals with user needs and ultimately to the content needed to meet these goals. The practicalities of repurposing content or acquiring new content should not be a central focus of the content strategy session. The focus should remain on how best to structure the site in order to meet the client's business goals; it is perfectly acceptable to map the ideal content scenario with the stakeholders in attendance.

See the accompanying essay for a more in-depth description of facilitating a content strategy session.

3. Information Architecture

Following the content strategy session, the lead architect is now armed with the information needed to create a detailed site plan by drawing on the results of the content inventory and the content strategy session.

The first client deliverable will consist of the initial site architecture in the form of a site map that includes notation of any areas where new content will need to be created in addition to existing content defined during the content strategy session. The areas of the site in need of content should be noted on the map, or an accompanying text document outline may be included for the same purpose. It will not be necessary for all areas of a site to be content managed, during the content strategy session, determine which areas are most frequently require updated information. In the next project meeting, discuss the areas that will be content managed, and which will remain static pages.

4. Content Requirements Analysis

After presenting the content inventory, site map, and content outline at the next project meeting, both the lead architect and the client should have a very good idea of the level of effort needed to acquire, repurpose or copy write new content. Also discuss the areas of the site that will benefit most from residing within the CMS.

It is important to work closely with the development team during this phase as any custom programming that will need to be implemented must be thoroughly defined through a functional specification.

5. Data Normalization

Now that content has been inventoried and the team has determined which areas will be content managed, the next step is to normalize the data and prepare it for migration to the CMS. Oftentimes, this process entails a database dump from an existing CMS or organization of documents that will be manually entered into the system. This process entails establishing a controlled vocabulary of content that will be created through the CMS and appear in various areas of the site. These vocabularies could be simply identifying the difference between a document and a file, or more complex differences between FAQ entries and news entries.

Establishing a controlled vocabulary is the first step toward defining similarities between content objects with the goal of paring the list to a small number of unique objects. This simple practice of normalizing data will reduce programming time and eliminate extraneous content objects.

6. Identify Metadata

With all content objects identified, the next step is to define the properties of the content objects. This process entails naming each property or metadata of the content object. For example, the content object 'News', should have a date, title, short description, body, and author. Define all properties associated with a content object in order to establish a final description of all possible metadata that can be used to describe the piece of content. This step allows the CMS developers to customize or create new content objects for inclusion into the CMS.

7. Content Object Mappings

The final step ensures that all content has been identified, normalized, and will meet the needs of content managers. Test content objects and metadata against functional specifications to determine if all content has been identified and all content that will be included within the CMS is normalized and ready to be entered. If the above steps have progressed according to plan, there should not be any surprises. If development of the CMS is moving forward quickly, it is possible to have the content managers begin to enter content into the system before the design skin is applied. Now is also the time to document of all of the content objects in order to create a user manual for the client. This final documentation should be an amalgamation of the above steps and define all metadata associated with the content object in addition to offering instructions for content entry, modification, and deletion.

Conclusion

This essay has described a method to prepare a Web site's content for migration into a CMS. Ensuring that all site content will be easily managed requires proper planning to identify content needs and to make sure that the content is properly defined and normalized. Organizing content is no small task and requires the input of information architects, stakeholders, developers, and content developers. The benefits of maintaining a content managed site that has gone through this process will greatly assist the client when additional features are added to the CMS or when content needs to be exported from the CMS for inclusion in marketing or hard copy marketing channels.