Building an Intranet Governance Strategy
Joseph Busch and Zach Wahl
Project Performance Corporation
Monday, November 15, 2010; 9:00 AM - Noon
Agenda
• What is Intranet Governance?
• Governance Team Charter
• Governance Team Structure
• Governance Team Job Descriptions
• Content Lifecycle and Archiving Policy
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What is Intranet Governance?
• Intranet Governance is the set of roles, responsibilities, and
processes that need to be put in place to guide the development
and use of an intranet so that it will remain consistent and
cohesive as it evolves over time.
– The Governance team sets up and maintains the “rules of the road”
for the Intranet; they are not the “traffic cops” that enforce them.
• Governance Artifacts are items such as process documents and
editorial standard guides that are used in the governance
processes.
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Sustainability
• Initial efforts can quickly be degraded without effective
governance.
• Lack of oversight will result in poorly named content and folders.
• Lack of coordination will result in duplicated, inappropriate, or
incorrectly placed content.
Documents in Directory: 10,000
Folders in Directory: 90
Directory Depth (Levels): 4
Duplicate Content: 0
Documents in Directory: 20,000
Folders in Directory: 150
Directory Depth (Levels): 7
Duplicate Content: 5,000
Documents in Directory: 40,000
Folders in Directory: 250
Directory Depth (Levels): 15
Duplicate Content: 15,000
Time from Rollout (months)
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Risk Acceptance
• Governance model will be driven by willingness to have
incorrect, inappropriate, or obsolete materials online.
Approvals Required Prior to Publication
Immediate Content Publication
Certified Publishers and Owners
Fully Democratized Publication and Editing
Centralized Governance Body
No Official Governance
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Level of Control
• Different applications have different governance requirements.
Wikis
Blogs
Social Tagging
Social Networking
Web
Content Management
Portal
Document Management
Records Management
Looser
Tighter
Less Complex
More Complex
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What Does an Intranet Governance
Committee Do?
• Decides on the initial processes
(including roles &
responsibilities), tools, and
training that contributors will
use to create the site content.
• Does not create or change the
content, but checks on its
overall quality, its overall
compliance to standards, and
the usability of the intranet.
Authors & Approvers do this:
Governance Committee does this:
• Changes the processes, tools,
and training to deal with
problems that are uncovered
during operations.
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Governance Scope & Components:
Overview (1)
Scope
Components
Look & Feel
Design guidelines: colors, typefaces, formatting, page sizes,
page templates, etc.
Editorial Style
Style guide, writing guidelines, copy editing, accessibility,
etc.
Content
Content scope, author/review process, ROT (redundant,
outdated, and trivial) content elimination, non-HTML
content, lifecycle & archiving, web applications, access
controls, etc.
Links
Styles, URL structure, file naming, link text, destinations, etc.
Search & Navigation
Breadcrumbs, navigation components, page hierarchy,
sidebars, search, search logs, etc.
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Governance Scope & Components:
Overview (2)
Scope
Components
Taxonomy & Metadata
Facets, maintenance process, editorial rules, tagging &
retagging, naming conventions, etc.
Infrastructure
Server and network hardware & software, security, backup,
analytics, etc.
Evaluation
Usability testing, surveys, site analytics, scorecards, social
media, etc.
Teamwork
Charter, committees and sub-committees, roles,
responsibilities, etc.
Authority
Incentives, measurement, job description changes (to add
intranet responsibilities), etc.
Marketing
Communications plan, presentations, migrating key
applications, training, etc.
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Look & Feel Components:
Design Guidelines Example
Source: http://www.usability.gov
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Editorial Style Components:
Style Guide Examples
Source: http://www.apstylebook.com/
Source: http://www.plainlanguage.gov/
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Content Components:
Information Life Cycle Example
Source: Workshop Report on Social Aspects of Digital Libraries, http://is.gseis.ucla.edu/research/dig_libraries/
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Links Components:
File Naming Guidelines Example
Source: http://www.ppc.com
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Search & Navigation Components:
Website Analytics Examples
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Taxonomy & Metadata:
Basic Change Request Process Examples
Submit Change
Request
Candidate Status
Simple?
Change as Requested
Yes
No
Research/complete
Change Request form
Change?
Yes
Yes
Immediate?
No
No
Inform Originator
Pending Status
Assign Priority
Approved Status
Source: Taxonomy Strategies Template
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Infrastructure:
SharePoint Search Architecture Example
Source: Arnold IT (http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/2009/09/16/ sharepoint-search-architecture/)
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Evaluation Components:
Website Scorecard Example
Source: Beacon Technologies (http://www.site-review-experts.com/ samples/standard.asp)
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Teamwork Components:
Team Roles
• What divisions and groups should
be represented on the team?
– HR, Corp Comm, IT
– Who else (SMEs and Content
Contributors)?
• Who will be the members of the
Governance team?
– Current team?
• Suggested roles (one person may fill
multiple roles):
– Team Leader (agenda setting)
– Intranet Editor
– Taxonomy Editor
– IT Implementer
– Business Analyst
A Different Approach…
• Visionary – survey the portal landscape, developing
and directing its future direction.
• Evangelist – serve as cheerleader for the portal
technology and what it can do for the business.
• User adoption – facilitate user adoption via focused,
one-on-one tutorials (primarily with executives who
don’t have time to sit through training programs),
incentive programs (for best collaborative sites, etc.),
and feedback surveys.
• Training – as primary trainer for SharePoint, will hold
regular training sessions for advanced users and site
administrators.
• Support – serve as top level support for portal
administrators and site administrators (infrastructure
support will be provided by IT).
• Business Analyst and Developer Liaison – meet with
business leaders to gather requirements for new portal
projects and manage development efforts of
development team.
Source: Microsoft-suggested SharePoint Strategy Team roles
(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=92333&clcid=0x409)
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Authority Components:
Measurement Examples
Automated Measurements
Compliance Reporting
Template usage
Percentage
Branding/logo usage
Exceptions identified
Link integrity
Exceptions listing
Metadata completeness
Percentage
Copyright compliance
Exceptions identified
Source: WelchmanPierpoint Web Governance and Standards Compliance
(http://welchmanpierpoint.com/sites/files/webgoverance_WelchmanPierpoint.pdf)
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Marketing Components:
Communications Plan Example
Source: Taxonomy Strategies Template
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• What is Intranet Governance?
• Governance Team Charter
• Governance Team Structure
• Governance Team Job Descriptions
• Content Lifecycle and Archiving Policy
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What’s in the Intranet Team Charter?
• The team charter sets out the goals and limits on the intranet
governance team:
– The scope of the intranet and overall responsibilities of the intranet
team.
– The team’s structure, and its members’ roles & responsibilities.
– The objectives of the intranet team.
– The materials to be created and maintained by the team.
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Team Charter: Team responsibilities
• Intranet platform and
tools:
– Content management &
delivery application
– Search (what’s included)
– Linking (what’s
appropriate)
• Create intranet content
– Content scope
– Content authoring and
approvals process
– Training materials for
authors and approvers
• Maintain intranet
– Page templates
– Taxonomy categories
– Content maintenance
(review & removal)
– Procedures for monitoring
Intranet quality
– Add/change platform &
tools
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Team Charter: Intranet Scope (1)
• The Intranet should be a centralized information resource that
cuts across all business units to ensure that key knowledge is
shared between employees so that information gaps are bridged
as the workforce changes.
• The Intranet is for publishing business-relevant content that
would be of interest to more than x number of people, span
business unit or function, or span geographic locations.
• The level of interest in a content item may be measured by
number of page views. If that is not achieved, then the content
may be retired.
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Team Charter: Intranet Scope (2)
• Non-HTML content such as documents, PowerPoint
presentations, spreadsheets, images, etc. may be published on
the Intranet. The same rules will apply to non-HTML content as
for web pages.
• The Intranet is not a repository of all information. It does not
include versions of content that are of record and need to be
retained.
• The Intranet is not for “secret” information, although access
control can be applied to content on an item-level, folder, or
directory basis.
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Team Charter: Intranet Scope (3)
• Intranet content will require approval by someone besides the
content creator before it is published.
– Area owners and area managers in the major content areas will be
identified, recruited, and trained to be responsible for overseeing the
publication of Intranet content.
• Intranet content will be maintained and reviewed by the content
owner at least once each year.
– Different content types such as announcements, policies, etc. may
have different review cycles.
– Landing pages which are intrinsic to Intranet structure will be
reviewed, but never deleted.
– People will be “reminded” rather than “warned” of content review
actions that are required.
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Team Charter: Team Structure
• The Intranet Team is a multi-division, cross-functional team
consisting of a small Core Team, a larger Extended Team, and a
group of Partners.
Core Team: Team Lead, IT,
Human Resources, and Corporate
Communications
Extended Team: Content
Approvers from Business Units,
Divisions, Offices, and Facilities
Partners: Business Applications
Owners, IT Managers, Legal, and
Risk Management
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Team Charter: Team Structure
• Multi-division, cross-functional team consisting of:
– Team Leader
– Core Team from HR, IT, and Corporate Communications
– Extended Team of Content Approvers / Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
– Partners who own or serve up applications, or provide oversight
• The Intranet Team will operate by consensus.
• Team members will represent their area, but must also
represent the overall interests.
• Decisions of the team may be appealed to the Steering
Committee. The Steering Committee may set priority tasks for
the Intranet Team.
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Team Charter: Objectives
• Oversee content migration.
• Develop initial standards for the look and feel of the Intranet and
update them as needed.
• Develop initial training materials for authors and approvers in
the Intranet, and update them as needed.
• Conduct periodic evaluations to test the Intranet’s performance
in meeting its business goals.
• Promote awareness and use of the Intranet.
• Request and prioritize additional Intranet functionality.
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Team Charter: Materials
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Team charter
Content scope policy
Design guidelines
Page templates
Taxonomy & maintenance process
Content approval process
Quality control process
Analytics & reporting
Lifecycle & archiving guidelines
Training materials
Communications plan
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• What is Intranet Governance?
• Governance Team Charter
• Governance Team Structure
• Governance Team Job Descriptions
• Content Lifecycle and Archiving Policy
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Team Structure: Best Practices
Steering Group (Chaired by Sponsor)
Business objectives vs. content
Allocation and review of resources *
Development Group
“Content development”
Operations Group
Making it happen
• Many organizations divide intranet governance into multiple
committees, subcommittees, and working groups.
• Even if a single group handles the governance, they should wear
multiple “hats” to represent different viewpoints.
* Figure source: Martin White. Intranet Governance (http://www.intranetfocus.com/governance/governance.pdf)
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Team Structure: Considerations
• Are multiple committees advisable for Intranet governance?
– We believe that to be overkill at this time
• Who should the group report to?
• In what areas is the current team weak and strong? Are
important capabilities missing?
– Representation from global offices
– Resource-focused technical execution after deployment
– Training and content/technical support
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Team Structure: Example
•
•
•
•
Three-tier structure
Partners are advisory only
Overall Intranet lead & editor
Executive backstop for appeals
Corporate
Communications
Core Team
LOBs
HR
IT
Steering
Committee
Lead
Extended Team
Content
Approvers
Applications
Owners
Editor
Partners
IT Managers
Legal & Risk
Management
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Multiple Sources for Intranet Evolution
User Interface
Application
Logic
XYZnet
Tagging Interface
CMS
Metadata/ content
analysis
Query logs/
analytics/
suggestions
Requests
Editor
End Users
Recommendations by Editor
1. Small changes (labels, synonyms)
2. Large changes (retagging,
application changes)
3. New “best bets” content
Intranet
Governance Team
Contributors/
Approvers
Team Considerations
1. Business goals
2. Changes in user
experience
3. Retagging cost
Requests from Partners
& elsewhere
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Basic Change Request Process
Originator submits
change request
Simple?
Change as requested
Yes
No
Research/complete
change request form
Yes
Change?
Immediate?
Yes
No
No
Inform originator
Building an Intranet Governance Strategy
Assign priority
36
• What is Intranet Governance?
• Governance Team Charter
• Governance Team Structure
• Governance Team Job Descriptions
• Content Lifecycle and Archiving Policy
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Role: Executive Sponsors
• Possess the ultimate decision-making authority on metadata
governance policy.
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Role: Lead
• Approve fast-track changes.
• Assure integrity of Intranet—quality of content and metadata
associated with content.
• Assess and consider impact and cost of undertaking
development tasks and implementing proposed changes.
• Do user research, or give gut-level feedback for changes.
• Record and report all change requests and their disposition to
the core and extended teams.
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Role: Core Team
• Oversee content management platform upgrades.
• Develop initial policies and guidelines, and update them as
needed.
–Look and feel, scope, content lifecycle and archiving, etc.
• Develop initial training materials for authors and approvers,
and update them as needed.
• Promote awareness and use of Intranet.
• Conduct periodic evaluations to test Intranet performance in
meeting its business goals.
• Request and prioritize additional Intranet functionality.
• Develop change requests, then review, prioritize, and
implement changes.
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Role: Extended Team
• Approve, maintain, and archive content.
• Ensure that content complies with Intranet policies and
guidelines.
• Identify content that is needed, and oversee its creation,
validation, and publication.
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Role: Partners
• Business applications owners, IT managers, legal, and risk
management (and other business stakeholders).
• Identify and communicate Intranet content and functionality
needs and change requests.
• Use and promote Intranet as the authoritative source.
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• What is Intranet Governance?
• Governance Team Charter
• Governance Team Structure
• Governance Team Job Descriptions
• Content Lifecycle and Archiving Policy
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Basic Approval Process
Non-HTML content is required to
have a link from content in a page
template
Content author submits
content
Meets scope & is
complete?
Approval by designated area content
manager
Yes
No
Research/complete
template
Publish
Inform content owner
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Basic Content Publishing Process
• Intranet content must be formatted in a page template (or, if
non-HTML content, linked to a page template to avoid orphaned
content).
• Metadata is required for all Intranet content (HTML and nonHTML).
• Every page must have a content author, and every author must
have an area approver.
– Area approvers will be designated for Business Functions (as listed in
the Intranet Taxonomy)
• Intranet content will be published on approval.
– So no fast-track process is required
• Modifications will usually be made by the area approver.
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Annual Review Process
Annual review task
Is content
current?
Sent to content author one month
prior to publication anniversaries.
Yes
No
Research/update content
Approval by designated area content
manager.
Meets scope & is
complete?
Mark review date
Publish
Inform owner
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Basic Content Review Process
• After publication, Intranet content must be reviewed annually
(on one year content anniversaries).
• Content authors will be sent email reminders of review tasks one
month prior to content anniversaries.
• Content authors are required to modify Intranet content prior to
content anniversaries, or indicate that it is current.
• Modified content needs to be approved by area content
managers.
• Content that is not approved will be marked deleted with the
exception of landing pages.
• If the content author/approvers do not complete their annual
review task, landing pages with linked pages or non-HTML
content will be reviewed and revised by the Intranet Lead.
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Content Lifecycle
• Content lifecycle is date-driven. Examples:
– Created date. Date content was originally created by content author
(usually system set when content is first saved to CMS)
– Approved date. Date content was approved by Area Approver
– Publication date. Date content is/was published (automatically set)
– Expiry date. Specifies future date when content is to be deleted
– Review date. Automatically set 365 days after content is published or
modified; Content owner is notified 30 days prior (335th day)
– Modified date. Date content was last modified
– Deleted date. Date content was deleted
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Content Lifecycle Transactions:
Specification
Event
Metadata
Actor
Description
Default
Authoring
Created Date
Author
Date content
originally created
Today
Approval
Approved
Date
Approver
Date content
approved
Not approved
Publication
Publication
Date
System
Date content was
published
Today
Expiration
Expiry Date
Author
Date when content
is to be deleted
+365 days
Review
Review Date
System
Date content must
next be reviewed
+365 days
Modification
Modified Date
Author or
Approver
Date content was
last modified
Today
Deletion
Deleted Date
Author,
Approver,
Intranet Lead
Date content was
deleted
+365 days
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Questions?
More information:
• Taxonomy Strategies: www.taxonomystrategies.com
• Thought Leadership Countdown to KM World:
www.ppc.com/Pages/KMWorld2010.aspx
Contact:
Joseph A. Busch, +1-415-377-7912, jbusch@ppc.com
Zach Wahl, +1-703-626-6976, zwahl@ppc.com
www.ppc.com  blog.ppc.com
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