Will Your CMS Project Roll? And How Bumpy Is the Ride?
Balance. It seems like everywhere you turn, there's an article or a workshop about achieving that elusive state called "work-life balance." I attended such a workshop last summer and the moderator introduced a really helpful exercise called the "Wheel of Life". The exercise helps you see where your life is out of balance, and it got me to thinking. Maybe the same principle of balance applies to content management projects...
Speaking of unbalanced content management projects, as some of you know, last month did a CMS Challenges Survey. The responses clearly indicated that it's rarely technology that makes content management project challenging. It's the people—their knowledge, their skills, and their intentions. The conclusion I drew from the survey is that there are some key factors that are critical to making your CMS project successful. If you're lacking in one or more of these areas, your project becomes unbalanced.
In the "Wheel of Life" exercise, you start with a page with circle broken up into eight segments, like a wheel with spokes. Each segment represents an area of your life—family and friends, physical environment, spirituality, health, fun, career/life purpose, money, and romance. Your task is to evaluate your level of satisfaction with each of these areas of your life. In doing this, you often find that one or more areas is lacking. This probably means that the "wheel" isn't turning smoothly, making for a less-than-happy experience.
After a dozen years in the content management field, it wasn't hard for me to come up with my equivalents for a happy CMS project. Here they are:
CMS Project Critical Success Factors
- Clear, Agreed-upon Business Goals
- Executive Sponsorship
- Committed Users/Stakeholders
- Realistic Timeline and Budget Expectations
- Solid CM Knowledge/Expertise (either internal or from outside)
- Experienced Project Manager
- Strong Technical Resources
- Good Communication between Business and IT
Now it's your turn. To do this exercise, draw a circle and divide it into eight sections, labeling each with the above critical success factors. (Or you can download this worksheet.)
Seeing the center of the wheel as “0” and the outer edge as “10,” rank your level of confidence in each area of your project by drawing a line, creating a new outer edge (as shown in the picture). The new perimeter of the circle represents your “Project Wheel”.
How bumpy is your ride? I'll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions about how to bring your CMS Project Wheel back into alignment. Good luck!
Rita Warren of ZiaContent, Inc. is a veteran of the software and digital media industries with more than 10 years experience helping companies deliver content in compelling and sensible ways. Well known in her field, Rita served as technical editor of the first edition of Bob Boiko's acclaimed book, the Content Management Bible. She is a frequent speaker at national conferences and contributor to content management industry publications.
