Keys to CMS Project Implementation Success - Part 3

In Part 2 of our Keys to CMS Project Implementation Success blog series, we talked about the purpose of a QuickStart Package and the importance of selecting a small, representative portion of your site for implementation. Choosing an appropriate portion of your site to be implemented in 100 hours or less provides a model to get the rest of your site integrated in Cascade Server according to best practices. Once you have selected the scope of your QuickStart Package, the next step in the process is to think about the project requirements.

Requirements gathering

Proper planning and thorough requirements gathering are key ingredients to project success. Once a client contacts our Services team for a QuickStart project, we send them a Requirements Gathering Guide, which is designed to help you think through the project and to communicate key information to us.  Included in the Guide is a “Statements of Requirements” section, which enables our clients to provide us with detail about their desired project scope before we engage in the planning process.

Why is this important? Imagine you were planning a hiking trip. Wouldn’t you want to know what your desired destination is and how long it will take to get there? If you didn’t determine those factors, you would run the risk of either wandering around aimlessly without reaching your destination or you would run out of food and water halfway through. The same applies to web projects. You want the roll-out to be a “home run” in order to build momentum for use and adoption of your new web content management software. Typically, the main reasons for IT projects failure are poorly defined or changing requirements and scope creep. Therefore, it is important to clearly identify the scope of the project so that it will be a complete success.

Stay tuned for the next part in our Keys to CMS Project Implementations Success blog series in which we'll discuss the timing of the QuickStart.

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