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People involved in a Web site

The following article discusses the roles and functions which are typically brought together in a collaborative environment when building a site.

Building and maintaining a Web site by using a Content Management System such as Lotus Web Content Management is not a task to be undertaken by a single individual.  It is not that this is an impossible task,  but rather that the task requires skills, experience, and knowledge that can only come from a many individuals working in a collaborative environment. Typically we bring together individuals under the umbrella of three areas (business, technology, and information) and four distinctive groups (business, technical, content, and design (or layout). Depending upon the size of the business and situation, it is possible for the same person's time to be split across positions in these groups.

The funtional groups represented include:

• Business,
• Technology,
• Information

The specific roles discussed include:

• Business owners
• Corporate communications and marketing
• Graphic designers
• Information architects
• Infrastructure engineers and operations
• Content authors, SMEs, and approvers
• Consumers

Functional Groups Represented

Expanding upon these functional groups further, we can see the areas where skills, experience, and knowledge are needed:

• Business

• The members of this group typically see the business vision for the Web site and chart its progress to meet this vision. They know the line of business requirements, can define the success criteria of the project, and can help to define the underlying information architecture. In terms of business process, they can identify where the current barriers exist that are to overcome with this project
  
  Typical members of this group include members of the management board, a project sponsor or sponsors (which is sometimes shared), business owners, and process leaders.

• Technology

• The members of this group have representation from several areas that touch all aspects of general IT, infrastructure, and network architecture to specialized Internet service providers (ISPs, hosting providers). Members of this group are proficient with the businesses defined technical architecture and have a complete understanding of the technical requirements of the Web site.
  
  Typical members of this group include members of the IT and architecture board, IT management and experts from third parties (ISPs and CMS technical experts if skills do not already exist), infrastructure engineers, and operations.

• Information
  

  Within the functional area of "Information", it is important split this into the generation of content, and the design and layout of the content. This is an important general concept within Lotus Web content Management which we will discuss in more detail in the article addressing key underlying concepts of Web Content Management.
  
• Content:  This group's members represent subject matter experts (SMEs), authors, content owners, and the target group for whom the information is intended. Members of this group are extremely important because they have a deep knowledge about existing application resources and content that needs to be integrated.
  
  Typical members of this group include representatives from the various specialized content areas of the business (products and within, marketing, corporate communications, and so on).
  
• Design and layout: Members of this group represent the delivery, styling, and management of the visual elements to the Web site. They specialize in delivering a complete user experience (UX) that is easily consumed by the visitor, while maintaining a consistent corporate style across the Web site. In this way, visitors can glean the information and knowledge required.
  
  Typical members of this group include Web layout designers, developers, UX SMEs, and associated test groups.

With the three main area and their subsequent groups defined, the communication and collaboration between these groups must stay at a level where is always a clear understanding of where responsibilities lay, because there will be undoubtedly areas of gray where overlap occurs. In addition, these groups must clearly understand and work toward the goals of the Web site. Best practice has found that the only way to keep this groups collaborating effectively is to ensure frequent interaction as illustrated by the following figure.

Note: These groups are key to building and maintaining the process and groups that persist along with the longevity of the Web site. While omitted here is the 'consumer or visitor', this group is vital for obvious reasons and can be logically grouped with the design or layout team because they will be ultimately responsible for the experience provided by the Web site. We talk about the consumer in a another section.

Business owners

As mentioned previously, the delivery of a CMS-based Web site is one where we can typically bring together individuals under the umbrella of four distinctive groups that collaborate together on a single goal, the Web site.  The Business group ultimately has the vision for the Web site. They know the line of business requirements and can define the success criteria of the project among other responsibilities.

Members of the management board and executive team perform the following tasks:

• Set and announce the key business objectives.
• Set the business context.
• Define the project sponsors (because this can be shared).
• Authorize the process leaders.
• Set the project budgets and the time line.

The project sponsor or sponsors (part of the organization that is driving the project) perform the following tasks:

• Work with business owners and content owners to define the information architecture.
• Define key concepts and terminology.
• Steer the decision process.
• Manage the project.

Process leaders perform the following tasks:

• Manage the project management.
• Define the resources that are required.
• Work with business owners and content owners to define taxonomies that categorize and organize information for both the content creator and the content consumer. These tasks are closely related to the underlying information architecture.

Corporate communications and marketing

A superset of the content group is corporate communications and marketing. This group is responsible for ensuring that the messages, products, and general information that are delivered to the consumer are consistent, well defined, easily digestible, and clear overall. Corporate communications and marketing individuals might make up some of the people who are already defined as part of the content group or, in some cases, provide direction from a higher level.

The corporate communications and marketing team performs the following tasks:

• Ensures information consistency
• Verifies that the general delivery of the product, service, or corporate information is clear
• Approves information style and language, as well as access

Graphic designers

The design and layout group is ultimately responsible for delivering the complete user experience for the Web site visitor. The responsibilities include layout, styling, corporate branding, and accessibility, for example, in addition to the areas mentioned in the following list.

The design, layout, and development team performs the following tasks:

• Helps to create and stamp the corporate design on the Web site
• Ensures that styling and layout provide a flexible user experience for the visitor
• Liaises with SMEs where necessary to address accessibility needs
• Works with the IT team to technically implement the corporate design
• Helps to create the author's template environment

Information architects

Aligned with the group for IT, the information architect (sometimes known as information designers ) team closely works with individuals from the group and are responsible for the delivery of the structure to the content, categorization, placement, and alignment with the visitors' expectations of information placement.

Content information architects perform the following tasks:

• With the design team, ensure the best fit and alignment with the visitors' mental model of information
• Help define the taxonomy in association with the content authors and SMEs
• Define the content structure and groupings with the design team

Information architects can be seen as an extension of the design and user experience group. Because common elements are shared across both areas, it is important to keep communicating and working in a collaborative partnership.

Infrastructure engineers and operations

The infrastructure engineers and operations team is part of the wider IT group and is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the systems are put in place and maintained against corporate standards. These standard typically fall into two areas: systems (the underlying software stack, for example, the  application server) and network (the architectural guidelines of how system communicate or do not communicate).

The infrastructure engineers and operations team performs the following tasks:

• Designs the CMS to fit with previously defined network and system architectural standards
• Establishes processes to monitor and maintain the system
• Works with the business to align budget with standards (resilience, scalability, and so on)

Content authors, SMEs, and approvers

Content is gold. Without it, the Web site ceases to be beneficial to the visitor. As such, the content team is responsible for ensuring that content is created, categorized, quality assured, and approved to be visible on the Web site.

Content authors, SMEs, and approvers perform the following tasks:

• Provide content expertise and writing.
• Help define the taxonomy with the information architect or architects.
• Help define the content structure with the information architect or architects.
• Provide first-level template support.

Content owners perform the following tasks:

• Provide content quality assurance (accuracy, relevance, and so on).
• Provide usability feedback.
• Approve content

Consumers

Today information, products, and services are acquired over the Internet through Web sites that are built with the Lotus Web Content Management system.  Web sites are a vehicle to unite consumers with products or information, and as such, the consumer plays the lead role. Consumers switch between competitive Web sites at the click of a mouse button if they do not find what they want within seconds of their visit. This is also the case with procurement of services and products. Sales are quickly lost if a consumer's mental model of how their interaction should take place is not aligned with how the Web site works. Therefore, clearly the consumer is important.

For new Web sites, all consumer feedback is important. Getting the Web site wrong costs time, money, and consumers' trust.  However, there is difficulty with getting it right the first time if you do not have user feedback to work with. The question is: how do you get that feedback before your Web site goes live? There are several answers to this question. One that stands out is to solicit the expertise of user experience, information architects, and user-centered practitioners, along with a targeted sample of willing participants from the general community. This is typically a standard practice among the methods used by these professions.  

For Web sites that are already in place and perhaps transitioning to a "new experience," such as a portal or new design, it is becoming common practice to offer certain groups within the Web sites' core user base to have access to a live 'beta' version of the site to gain feedback.  This approach can be advantageous where there is a need to ensure business as usual (BAU).

Consumers in a role that assists the organization perform the following tasks:

• Provide live and relevant Web site feedback
• Can validate use-case scenarios, check and balance
• Help eliminate overlap and misinterpretations of new design elements
• Provide usability feedback, crucial wit accessibility
• Approve content

This article discusses the roles and functions which are typically brought together in a collaborative environment when building a site.