selection workshop slides from gilbane san francisco 2009 conference

June 2, 2009 © Copyright 2009 Content Here.

 How to Select a Web Content Management SystemSeth GottliebThe Gilbane Conference

San Francisco, CA

June, 2009

1

Agenda>> Introductions

>> Horror story

>> The selection process

.. Business context

.. Requirements analysis

.. Solution definition

.. Market filtering

.. Selection

2



Introductions: Seth Gottlieb>> Seth Gottlieb

.. Former CMS customer, integrator, vendor

.. Dislikes them all (sometimes)>> Content Here, Inc. (est. March 2007)

.. Vendor neutral strategic consulting and advisory services around content technologies: commercial, open source, and SaaS

.. Clients from high tech, media and entertainment, government, and professional services industries

.. Reports on Drupal for Publishers and Java Open Source Web Content Management Systems

3



Introductions: And you are...>> Name, role, and company

>> Type of Site?

.. Marketing?

.. Media?

.. Internal?>> Why are you here?

.. Selecting a WCMS for the first time?

.. Want to avoid another disaster?

.. Just came to gloat after a wildly successful selection?

4



Why is selection so hard?>> Fragmented market place

>> Platforms not applications

>> Convergence of process and technology

>> Information management is immature

>> Are we on Web 2.0 or 3.0?

5



You are not just buying software

6



You are adopting a solution

7

app. support

hosting

3rd party add-ons

customization

configuration

support & maintenance

Solution

processgovernance



Plenty of other chances to fail

Badly designed customizations

+ Ineffective integrator

+ Insufficient training

+ Failed content migration

+ No real usability testing

+ No content management strategy

+ Poor organizational support

= Same mess, different container

8



A cautionary tale...

9



Too busy to create content

10



Let’s solve it with tools!

11



12



20 product “short list”

13



Demo burnout

14

I think I like “FatSite” the best

You mean that system that did that thing with the

assets? I don’t think I saw that one.

I liked the one with the cute

sales guy.

He was cute wasn’t he?



Demo burnout

15

He said it would be possible with customization

What about the workflow

requirement?

They ALL said that for

everything!



Math, don’t fail me now!

16

When you add it all up, the winner is pretty clear.

But that one was so hard to use.

Maybe we had our weightings wrong.

I think I hate them all.

Can we build something

custom?

Let’s start over.



When numbers fail...

17

Can’t we just go with the vendor who will

endure the most punishment?



After the decision

18

I guess we should call a couple

of references now.

http://flickr.com/photos/nichollsphotos/2906834393/





$500,000 later....

19

...the users hate it.



And the cycle begins again

20



What went wrong?

21

objective viabilitysubjective fit



There has to be a better way!>> Business context

>> Leading requirements

>> Solution definition

>> Market filtering

>> Short list evaluation

22



Your selection team>> Representatives from:

.. Contributors

.. Site owners

.. Site developer/maintainers

.. Visitors (or their advocates)>> Size: < 10 decision makers

>> Onlookers welcome for transparency

23



Step 1: business context

24

http://flickr.com/photos/pictim/2579694742/





Business context

25

>> Organizational context

.. Role of content in your business

.. Processes and tools

.. Breakdowns and pain points

>> Technology context

.. Current infrastructure

.. Supported technologies



Business Case

>>Why you are doing it

>>Where it is going to fit

26



A necessary digression:

27

ROI



ROI exercises lead to...

28

Unrealisticexpectations



If you want to measure something

Measure the value of your content

and then

Then do things to maximize it

29



Part of a broader initiative>> Clean up/reorganize your content

>> Redesign (with wireframes and mockups)

>> Reorganize responsibilities

30

Before you implement your new WCMS



One possible result>> Clean up content

>> Revise content model

>> Streamline workflow

>> Reward employees for good content management

>> Upgrade existing CMS to the current version

31



Step 2: leading requirements

32



Leading requirements are...

>> Important to your business

>> Powerful filters

33



Two categories>> Non-Functional Requirements: the “ilities”

>> Functional Requirements: features that the system interacts with

34



Non-functional requirements>> What is the budget?

>> Who is going to be supporting this solution? What are their skills?

>> What are the hosting capabilities?

>> The structure and inter-relatedness of the content

>> What kind of traffic will this site get?

>> What other systems does the system need to integrate with?

>> What other services are needed from the vendor?

35



Powerful non-functional filters>> Infrastructure:

.. Server operating systems

.. Client operating systems

.. Database

.. Security policy

>> Technology skills

>> Content modeling

36



Content modeling

37



Content modeling

Pages or Objects?

38



Content modeling>> Data types: string, numeric, date, etc.

>> Validation: required, format

>> Structure: nestedness, inter-relatedness

>> Organization: folder based, faceted

39



Content model example: Quiz>> Title (string)

>> Description (rich text)

>> Instructions (rich text)

>> Questions (ordered collection)

.. Question (complex type)•Question text (string)•Points (numeric)•Answers (ordered collection)

–Answer (complex type)»Answer text (string)»Answer explanation (rich text)»Correct (boolean)

40



Functional requirements>> Scenarios based:

.. Not if but how

.. Phased

>> Think of three classes of personas:

.. Contributor/Editor

.. Developer/Administrator

.. Visitor

41



Typical contributor scenarios>> Edit semi-structured page

>> Create article

>> Create unstructured page

>> Create re-usable image/video/audio

>> Build photo gallery

>> Edit section landing page

>> Build interactive form

>> Search repository

>> Run content aging report

42



Create article questions>> Task assignment?

>> Are there different types of articles?

>> How are articles organized?

>> Associations with other content

>> Template selection

>> Preview scenarios

>> Approval rules

>> Approval notifications

>> Scheduled vs. immediate publishing

43



Typical visitor scenarios>> Register

>> Login and view restricted content

>> Rate article

>> Comment on article

>> Search site

44



Typical developer scenarios>> Create, test, deploy presentation template

>> Configure workflow

>> Create user (with permissions)

45



Step 3: solution definition

46

app. support

hosting

3rd party add-ons

customization

configuration


Solution



How much help will you need?

47

DIYDelegated

• SaaS + SI• SaaS + SaaS• COTS + SI + Managed

Hosting• FOSS + SI + Managed

Hosting

• SaaS + You• COTS + SI + You• FOSS + SI + You

• COTS + You• FOSS + You



Step 4: market filtering

48

http://www.yukonhostels.com/new_photos.html





Market filtering>> Educate one of your own

.. CMS Report

.. Web Content Management in Java

.. Gartner

.. Walk the exhibition floors

.. Call peers>> Hire a vendor neutral consultant

49



Market filtering>> Technology filters

.. Architectural patterns

.. Technology stack

>> Company filters

.. Company viability

.. Experience in your industry

.. Company health (gossip)

50



A necessary digression:

WCMS Architecture I: Baking vs. Frying

51



They all do it

52

When?

Publish Time



Different architectures

53

management

delivery

management

repository

publisher delivery

!=

repository

Request Time

FRY BAKE



Each has its advantages

54

Performance/Stability

Dynamism

high trafficpersonalization

access controlcost savings

availability

decoupling“website in a box”

FRY BAKE



Most products are based on one of the strategies

55

FRY BAKE



Each has its coping

56

Performance/Stability

Dynamism

fragment publishingcachingclustering

structured publishing

code publishing

FRY BAKE



For more information

ReadEnter Content Here: CMS Deployment Patterns (http://www.contenthere.net/2007/06/cms-deployment-patterns.html)

57

http://blog.contenthere.net/2007/06/cms-deployment-patterns.html








Why does this matter?>> Visitor facing behavior

.. Commenting, Rating

.. Registration

>> Traffic

>> Integration with existing front end functionality

>> Immediacy

58



Another necessary digression:

WCMS Architecture II: Central vs. Distributed

59



Stand-alone vs. Distributed

60

*Drupal*Ektron*OpenCMS*Plone*Typo3

*FatWire*Ektron*Magnolia*Sitecore*Tridion*Vignette



Stand-alone clustered

61



Other architectural factors>> LDAP Integration: not “yes/no” but “how”

>> Backup: what happens to the site?

>> Search integration: how to notify index

>> Templating: language and your skills

>> Configuration management: how do you deploy code

62

production

development

qa code/configuration

content




A word about vendor risk

63




What about open source?

64



open source != open source != open source

>> Community open source

>> Commercial open source

>> Institutional open source

65

know the ecosystem

know the business model

And you were confused by commercial software

66

?we

rock!easiest to use

cheap!

enterprisegrade

not dead!

leading integrator

leading integrator

leading integrator

zzzIRC

sprint

*con

committer

hack-fest

meetup

foundation

license

forge



Remember the stack

67

app. support

hosting

customization

configuration


Solution



Remember the stack

68

supplier

sales

app. support

hosting

customization

configuration


Solution



Remember the stack

69

your i.t. app. support

hosting

customization

configuration


Solutionsales



Commercial open source

70

commercialfoss

partner.T.I

app. support

hosting

3rd party add-ons

customization

configuration


Solution

sales



71

Vendor

sales

app. support

hosting

customization

configuration




Step 5: short list evaluation

72



73

THE RFP PROCESS IS

BROKEN



The RFP should open a dialog

74

>> The RFP should concisely communicate:

.. Business Context

.. Desired Solution

.. Description of selection process

.. Establish lines of communication



The RFP should not

>> Be a casting call

>> Be an invitation for sales rhetoric

>> Insulate the buyer from the seller

>> Take the thought out of the process

75



RFP Prototype Specification

76

Prove that your product will work within our organization



RFP Prototype Specification

77

The scenarios are the script



RFP TOC Example

78

>> Introduction

.. Business Context

.. Technology Context

.. RFP Objectives

.. RFP Response

.. Response Timeline

>> Non-Functional Requirements

>> Usage Scenarios

>> Contact Person

>> Appendix A: Example Content Types

.. Article

.. Quiz




ReadEnter Content Here: The RFP is DEAD, Long Live the RFP (http://www.contenthere.net/2008/02/the-rfp-is-dead-long-live-the-rfp.html)

79

http://www.contenthere.net/2008/02/the-rfp-is-dead-long-live-the-rfp.html






Demo Prep>> Coach suppliers

.. Build relationship

.. Validate understanding of requirements

.. Recommend demo format

.. Let them rehearse>> Prepare audience

.. Assemble selection group

.. CMS theory overview (so the suppliers don’t have to)

.. Participation guidelines

.. Scoresheets

80



Proposed demo agenda:

81

Time (min) Description Audience

0 - 30 Vendor intro Selection Team, Technologists, Project Manager, Money Guy, Rubber Neckers

30-60 High level product walk through Selection Team, Technologists, Project Manager, Money Guy, Rubber Neckers

60-75 Break75-135 Custom usage scenarios Selection Team, Technologists,

Project Manager

135-150 Break150-210 Technical walk through Technologists, Project Manager

210-240 Product licensing and terms Project Manager



Participation guidelines>> Read the proposals

>> Mind your manners

>> Attendance

>> Ask questions

>> Represent your colleagues

>> Take notes

82



Postmortem facilitation>> Report scores

>> Strengths/concerns

>> Leave behind demo

>> Follow on questions

>> Call references

>> Training

>> Prototype (potentially)

83




ReadEnter Content Here: How to make the most out of a vendor demo (http://www.contenthere.net/2007/09/how-to-make-the-most-out-of-a-vendor-demo.htmll)

84

http://blog.contenthere.net/2007/09/how-to-make-most-out-of-vendor-demo.html






Step 6: selection

85



Alignment meeting agenda>> Initial survey (how close are we?)

>> First elimination

>> Open questions/concerns/risks

>> Scenario winners

>> Discussion of doubts

>> Apache style voting for the front runner

86



Decision Making Through Doubt>> Focus on risks and limitations of the solutions

.. missing feature

.. awkward implementation

.. technical incompatibility

.. unsatisfactory answer

.. supplier doubt>> Address each doubt

.. verify

.. develop mitigation strategy (customization, integration, process change, tolerance)

87



Apache style voting>> -1: Over my dead body (veto)

>> -0: I don’t like it but don’t let me stand in the way

>> 0: No opinion

>> +0: I like it but I don’t really know why

>> +1: I like it and I will help make it happen!

88



Negotiation>> Make it a win/win

>> Explore discounts

>> Share risk/credit

89



Summary>> Understand what you are looking for - you may

already have it!

>> Leading requirements:

.. non-functional are the coarsest filters

.. scenarios describe desired functionality>> Demos determine fit:

.. Functional fit

.. Organizational fit>> Create a win/win partnership

90



91

Thank You

Seth GottliebContent [email protected] http://www.contenthere.net

For more information about selecting a CMS, go to:

http://www.contenthere.net/category/selection

http://blog.contenthere.net/search/label/selection

http://blog.contenthere.net/search/label/selection