Content Management: Phase 4: Pilot Project

The first step in Phase 4 is to select a suitable project. Here are a few guidelines we follow:

We help you choose a project that can be completed in a fairly short amount of time, between three and six months. A short project will give us a timely result that shows off the success of your process. It will also ensure that we can make course corrections and get immediate feedback. Finally, a short, small project improves the probability that adequate support will be available to deal with implementation problems as they arise and minimize the impact of serious design flaws.
We help you select a project that has more new content than existing content so that you don't have a lot of tedious rewriting.
Alternatively, we help you convert a reasonably structured existing document(s) as a good exercise for your authors. Starting with an existing base can shorten the learning curve for authors. We want to be careful, however, that we do not select an unstructured disaster that must not only be restructured but often rewritten from scratch.
We help you ensure that you have an innovative and enthusiastic team assigned to the pilot project. This is not the time to bring the laggards along. This is not a time for second guessing and naysaying.
We help you select a very strong project manager who wants to see content management succeed and who is an excellent communicator.
We want to be certain that everyone involved in the project, including those responsible for final deliverables and translation, are brought into the planning early and are willing to work closely with the project team.
We carefully discuss the potential risks of the pilot project. For example, what happens if the challenges of the new technology delay the delivery of the information and potentially delay a product release? We have each team involved in the pilot develop a risk-management plan that includes methods to mitigate problems if or when they occur. The risk-management plan should be approved by senior management.

If you would like to learn more about any of our consulting services or you would like to talk to a representative about scheduling an activity, please email or call 303-232-7586.