Enterprise Information Architecture: A Framework for Intranet Success : Enterprise Information Architecture: A Framework for Intranet Success KM World/Intranets 2003
Santa Clara, CA
October 15, 2003
Louis Rosenfeld
www.louisrosenfeld.com
Panelists : Panelists Joseph Busch
Principal, Taxonomy Strategies
Board member, Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
Michael Crandall
Technology Manager, US Library Program, Bell and Melinda Gates Foundation
Debora Seys
Information Architect, @hp Employee Portal, Hewlett-Packard
Louis Rosenfeld (moderator)
Principal, Louis Rosenfeld LLC
Board member, Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture
What’s Wrong with Intranets: Users’ perspective : What’s Wrong with Intranets: Users’ perspective Users can’t find what they need (information architecture problem)
“How come I didn’t know your department was developing a product similar to ours?”
“Why couldn’t we find any relevant case studies to show that important prospect?”
“Why do our sales and support staff keep giving our customers inconsistent information?”
What’s Wrong with Intranets: Owners’ perspectives : What’s Wrong with Intranets: Owners’ perspectives Owners are overwhelmed (enterprise management problem)
Content management pressures
Resource allocation
Technology selection
Challenge of creating a unified intranet in a highly distributed environment
Users’ Problems + Owners’ Problems = Enterprise IA (EIA) : Users’ Problems + Owners’ Problems = Enterprise IA (EIA)
The EIA Framework Seven issues : The EIA Framework Seven issues EIA governance: how the work and staff are structured
EIA services: how work gets done in an enterprise environment
EIA staffing: who handles strategic and tactical efforts
EIA funding model: how it gets paid for
EIA marketing and communications: how it gets adopted by the enterprise
EIA workflow: how it gets maintained
EIA design and timing: what gets created and when
EIA Governance: Questions : EIA Governance: Questions What sort of individuals or group should be responsible for the EIA?
Where should they be located within the organization? How should they address strategic issues? Tactical issues?
Can they get their work done with carrots, sticks, or both as they try to work with somewhat autonomous business units?
EIA Governance: A separate business unit 1/2 : Logical outgrowth of
Web or portal team
Design or branding group
E-services, e-business or e-commerce unit
Goals
Ensure that IA is primary goal of the unit
Retain organizational learning
Avoid political baggage
Maintain independence EIA Governance: A separate business unit 1/2
EIA Governance: A separate business unit 2/2 : Ambitious, fool-hardy, unrealistic? Necessary!
Models of successful new organizational efforts often start as separate entities
Alternatives (none especially attractive)
Be a part of IT or information services
Be a part of marketing and communications
Be a part of each business unit EIA Governance: A separate business unit 2/2
EIA Governance: Balancing strategic and tactical : EIA Governance: Balancing strategic and tactical Strategic: Model on Board of Directors
5-7 representatives of key constituencies
Track record with successes, mistakes with organization’s prior centralization efforts
Mix of visionaries, people who understand money
Tactical: Start with staff who “do stuff”
Extend as necessary by outsourcing
Enables logical planning of hiring and use of consultants and contractors
EIA Governance: Board of directors 1/2 : EIA Governance: Board of directors 1/2 Goals
Understand the strategic role of information architecture within the enterprise
Promote information architecture services as a permanent part of the enterprise’s infrastructure
Align the group and its services with those goals
Ensure the group’s financial and political viability
Help develop the group’s policies
Support the group’s management
Makeup
Draw first from effective leaders
Then from major units that would be strategic partners
EIA Governance: Board of directors 2/2 : EIA Governance: Board of directors 2/2 Qualities
Experience and duration in the enterprise
Wide visibility and extensive network
Can draw on institutional memories and experiences
Track record of involvement with successful initiatives
Entrepreneurial (can read and write a business plan)
Experienced with centralization efforts
Does not shy away from political situations
Can “sell” a new concept and find internal funding
Is like the people you need to “sell” to
Has experience with consulting operations
Has experience negotiating with vendors
EIA Services: Questions : EIA Services: Questions What should a team responsible for EIA actually do?
How do their “services” fit with work that happens within business units? Or with outside contractors and consultants?
What kind of people should manage these efforts?
How do IA generalists and specialists fit together?
EIA Services: From overwhelming to digestible : EIA Services: From overwhelming to digestible
EIA Services: Modular service plan : EIA Services: Modular service plan Avoid “monolithic” approach: “Hi, we’re the EIA team and we’re here to help… and we’re going to centralize all of your information…”
Break IA and CM into digestible, non-threatening tasks and sell those
Allows you to divide and conquer clients…
…and helps you understand IA challenges better (e.g., applying metadata in a centralized environment)
EIA Services: Potential service offerings 1/2 : EIA Services: Potential service offerings 1/2 User-oriented
Persona and scenario development
User testing and task analysis
Search and server log analysis
Content-oriented
Content inventory and analysis
Content evaluation and assessment
Content model design
Content development policy (creation, maintenance)
Content weeding, ROT removal, and archiving
Content management tool (acquisition, maintenance)
Metadata development
Metadata maintenance
Manual tagging
Automated categorization and classification
EIA Services: Potential service offerings 2/2 : EIA Services: Potential service offerings 2/2 Context-oriented
Business metrics development and analysis
Internal marketing strategy and implementation
Stakeholder and decision-maker interviews
Business rules development (for best bets, content models, etc.)
Production/Maintenance
Template design and application
Training
Policy/procedure/standards development and acceptance
Publicity of new/changed content
Tool analysis/acquisition (CMS, search, portal)
Quality control and editing
Link checking
HTML validation
Liaison with visual design staff, IT staff, vendors
EIA Services: Assessing departmental IA needs : EIA Services: Assessing departmental IA needs
EIA Services: Basic & premium levels : EIA Services: Basic & premium levels Free services can lead to fee services
EIA Services: Phased demand for IA services : EIA Services: Phased demand for IA services
EIA Staffing: Questions : EIA Staffing: Questions Who should be involved: in-house, consultant, contractor? What type of specialization should the staff have?
Should they be centralized or located within business units or both?
EIA Staffing: Tactical team 1/4 : EIA Staffing: Tactical team 1/4 Goals
Delivers IA services to the enterprise in content, users, and context areas
Implements the strategic team’s policies
Works directly with clients to understand their needs and develop new services to meet those needs
EIA Staffing: Tactical team 2/4 : EIA Staffing: Tactical team 2/4 Make-up driven by “market demand,” existing resources
“Vertical” IA generalists: split between EIA project enterprise business units
“Horizontal” IA specialists: “consultants” for both groups of generalists
Tools (e.g., search, portal, CMS)
Metrics
Evaluation
Metadata development
XML and other markup languages
EIA Staffing: Tactical team 3/4 : EIA Staffing: Tactical team 3/4 Human Computer interaction
Cognitive Psychology
Librarianship (reference)
Marketing
Branding
Merchandising
Organizational Psychology
Business Management
Operations Engineering
Social Network Analysis
Ethnography
Economics Librarianship (tech. services)
Information Science
Journalism
Technical Communication
Computer Science
Graphic design
EIA Staffing: Tactical team 4/4 : EIA Staffing: Tactical team 4/4 Qualities for member of tactical team
Entrepreneurial mindset
Ability to consult (i.e., do work and justify IA and navigate difficult political environments)
Willingness to acknowledge ignorance and seek help
Ability to communicate with people from other fields
Sensitivity to users’ needs
…and know about IA and related fields
EIA Staffing: Team Structure 1/2 : EIA Staffing: Team Structure 1/2
EIA Staffing: Team structure 2/2 : EIA Staffing: Team structure 2/2
EIA Funding Model: Questions : EIA Funding Model: Questions How should this group be funded?
How should other expenses (e.g., software licenses) be covered? Charge-back fees for individual services? Flat “tax” paid by business units? Covered by general administration's tab? Some hybrid thereof?
Should certain services be performed gratis, while others require payment?
EIA Funding Model: Looking for inspiration : EIA Funding Model: Looking for inspiration Study the successes/failures of the enterprise’s other centrally funded services
Possible plan
Initially: “tax” on business units and/or “seed capital” from senior management
Ultimately: self-funding (models: IT, HR, special projects)
Key: funding should be from central group (e.g., senior management) or self-funded; else too much dependency on business units
EIA Funding Model: Ensuring independence : Potential models already in existence in the enterprise
Charge-back
Tax on business units
Money from general fund
Hybrids
Charge-back model is attractive
Increasing perceived value of IA by charging fees
Compares well with duplicated expenses incurred by business units EIA Funding Model: Ensuring independence
EIA Funding Model: Diversify revenue streams : EIA Funding Model: Diversify revenue streams
EIA Marketing & Communications: Questions : EIA Marketing & Communications: Questions How to position this work and the group that supports it: IA? User Experience? Web Design? How do these terms affect the scope of the work/charter of the group?
How does a plan like this get “sold,” and to whom?
Whose support is needed, and what tactics are useful in convincing them to support EIA work?
How to prioritize which business units around the enterprise to work with?
EIA Marketing & Communications: Positioning the EIA initiative : EIA Marketing & Communications: Positioning the EIA initiative Approaching “clients”
No carrot or stick
Offer services and consulting that save money, reduce tedium
Branding: choose the term that is
Hottest
Has least baggage
Steps on fewest toes
EIA Marketing & Communications: Selling IA : EIA Marketing & Communications: Selling IA Concrete
We can make work easier and save money for individual business units
We can improve the user experience and build brand loyalty among customers, organizational loyalty among employees
We can minimize the enterprise’s habit of purchasing redundant licenses and services
EIA Marketing & Communications: One unit at a time : EIA Marketing & Communications: One unit at a time Start with low-hanging fruit
Killer content
Plentiful or influential users
Strategic value (business context)
Determine current status of the “client”
What are they doing now?
What expertise is in-house?
What relevant tools do they own (extend licenses)?
Are they enlightened?
EIA Marketing & Communications: Illustrating the concept : EIA Marketing & Communications: Illustrating the concept Select an initial model for centralized approach that’s familiar, accessible
Staff directory often the best
Serves all enterprise users
Useful, highly structured content which may have significant metadata, searching and browsing capabilities
Has high value in context of the enterprise’s daily operations
EIA Design/Timing: Questions : EIA Design/Timing: Questions An EIA design is an overwhelmingly large undertaking; how might it be broken into more digestible pieces?
How should they be sequence: what makes sense to take on now, later, or perhaps not at all?
EIA Design/Timing: Modular, phased : EIA Design/Timing: Modular, phased
EIA Design/Timing: 3-6 years, not months : EIA Design/Timing: 3-6 years, not months Use early successes as models
Anticipate greater centralization among and within business units over time
Support different levels of centralization concurrently (Neanderthals coexist with Space Agers)
EIA Workflow: Questions : EIA Workflow: Questions How does the content authoring and publishing process work now?
Who and how many are involved?
How can the group support that work, and determine the best mix of centralized and autonomous responsibilities within that workflow?
EIA Workflow: Deconstruct, then assign : EIA Workflow: Deconstruct, then assign Determine roles, then responsibilities among local and central units
Strive for evolution toward centralization
EIA Framework: Summary : EIA Framework: Summary Entrepreneurial
Services marketed to internal clients
Goal of self-sustainability
Modular
Specific services, not full package
Logical migration path
Phased
Projects that are low hanging fruit
Selective roll-out
Contact Information : Contact Information Louis Rosenfeld LLC
902 Miller Avenue
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48103 USA
lou@louisrosenfeld.com
www.louisrosenfeld.com
+1.734.663.3323 voice
+1.734.661.1655 fax
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