MAY 2004
Implementing a Content Management System
Categorised under: articles, content management
Australian Government departments and agencies are increasingly using content management systems (CMS) to streamline the management of a variety of materials on their websites. Content management is a complex area and the success of the selected CMS will largely depend on how it is implemented and used.
This checklist is intended to be used by those staff in an organisation who have been given the responsibility to determine CMS requirements and evaluate products. The information within this checklist may also be relevant to Chief Information Officers, Information Management steering groups and other senior managers. The checklist focuses on non-technical issues.
This article was written by James Robertson, and then reviewed and revised by AGIMO, the Bureau of Meteorology, the ACT Chief Minister’s Department, and the Content Management Community of Practice.
Full article: Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO)
Tags: content management systems, deployment, implementation, project planning
James Robertson is the founder and Managing Director of Step Two Designs, a vendor-neutral consultancy located in Australia.
James is recognised as one of the world-wide thought leaders on the topics of web content management and intranet strategy. He has worked with many organisations in both the public and private sectors, including Fortune 500 companies and Federal Government agencies. 
One Comment:
James
I was writing our internal process for implementing a CMS and found tha tthis process and your deploying a CMS to mostly focus on procinples as opposed to actual “tasks”. I developed this tentative list that might prove useful. It follows along the lines a typical software implementaiton:
1. Build hardware infrastructure
2. Instantiate CMS software
3. Obtain CMS software training for key users (administrator, power user)
4. Configure the software
a. Security model
b. Workflow
c. Reporting
d. Style sheets
e. DTDs
f. Folder structure
g. Metadata Schema
h. Versioning
5. Test the implementation for technical performance and scalability
6. Revise software configuration
7. Conduct usability test of key interfaces
8. Revise software interfaces