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Collaboratively creating CMS scenarios

A month or so ago I published an article on creating CMS scenarios, for use during vendor demonstrations. This week, as part of one of the many selection projects I'm involved in, I took a different approach to creating the scenarios.

The context was that the client wanted some more help to construct the scenarios, as well as engaging the whole project group in the process. This would gather the widest input, as well as helping to ensure that everyone ended up on the same page.

So I pulled out my coloured pens and sticky notes, and we did several rounds of affinity mapping. This is how it worked:

• The first round involved everyone writing up possible features or activities to include in the demos, one per sticky note.
• We then clustered them into groups, following the standard affinity mapping process.
• Pulling out another colour of sticky notes, we then came up for labels for each group.
• I then stuck up sticky notes for the following categories:

  scenario 1
  scenario 2
  scenario 3
  scenario 4
  "other items to demo"
  not current in req's
  not demoed
  tech, assess separately

• The group then did a first cut to pull together the sticky notes under the various headings.
• We then talked through each category, tweaking until it was the right size with the right type of items.

As always, it's fun to use these kinds of hands-on techniques, and the outcome seemed pretty reasonable. I'm not sure I'd use this approach frequently, but it was the right one to use here.

Reviewing the session, these were the strengths of the approach:

• makes a hard task easier and more fun
• builds consensus amongst the group
• provides an opportunity to double-check the requirements
• sparks good discussions about CMS capabilities
• works well in a group setting

And the limitations:

• still lots of writing to be done, this is just creating the "table of contents"
• the real scenarios will only become apparent once the narrative is written in detail
• scenarios will almost certainly be further shuffled once writing begins
• can be shallow as a process
• "hard" issues can be avoided by the group

Anyway, shared for interest, your mileage may vary...

Posted by jamesr on October 13, 2007 07:01 PM
Categories: Content management