Within your organization, content is developed in many different ways, by many different people, and by many different departments. Development may follow a predefined process or it may not, and if there is an established process, it may differ from department to department. To implement a unified content strategy, you need unified processes so that everyone involved in developing, storing, and publishing content does it the same way, or at minimum is able to interact effectively and share content. To understand where you need to focus your efforts, though, you need to examine your content life cycle and any issues associated with it.
This chapter provides examples of typical issues an organization faces in the content life cycle and the implications of those issues for a unified content strategy. Some of these issues may be relevant to your organization, but your organization may still have entirely different issues that will need to be resolved before you move ahead. Issues include anything that may impede your ability to implement a unified content strategy, such as processes that aren’t working as well as they could be, gaps in processes, or technology that isn’t meeting your needs.
The phases in your content life cycle need to be identified and detailed to help you identify areas for improvement. Recognizing the issues will help you plan and define your unified content strategy. Where your organization currently has challenges, you need to improve the processes and technology to eliminate these issues. Where processes and technology are working well, you need to know whether they will continue to work effectively in the new strategy, and if so, incorporate them. Identifying the issues helps you to determine the scope and required functionality of your unified content strategy, define the tools selection criteria, and define which processes you must redesign or create.
Implementing a new system and methodology can be a costly and time-consuming undertaking. You want to do it right. This means taking a hard look at your processes. Finding problems now means that you will implement a better solution. Identifying problems should not be viewed or approached negatively; rather it should be viewed as an opportunity to positively change the way you do business.
Although your organization has identified the need to improve the way it creates and manages content, some people may become uncomfortable when you start examining issues. Assure management and staff that identifying issues is important, that finding issues now will enable you to address, correct, or prevent any problems from continuing in the new processes and technology. After all, no process is without its problems. Processes that worked well in the past can become problematic as the company and its requirements continue to change and grow. Make sure to identify what works well so you can retain successes.
Be aware that interviewees may answer questions the way they think the interviewer wants them to, rather than being truthful in their feedback. Review effective interviewing and data collection techniques before beginning this process.
Some of these content management topics may be foreign or new to the people you interview. Be prepared to help educate them so that you can better understand their needs.
Content moves through various phases of development, such as creation, review, management, and delivery. These phases are collectively known as the content life cycle.
Although your organization may have different phases—or call them by different names—these four are the most common. To identify the content life cycle in your organization, look at how content is developed for one area or across the enterprise. Is it the same across all content creation areas, or does it vary from area to area? How effective is the content life cycle in each area?
This section poses questions about your content life cycle and its effectiveness. To answer these questions, you will need to interview all the players (everyone involved in the content life cycle). Sample interview questions are included farther on in this chapter.
The content creation phase can include planning, design, authoring, and revision. Each of these processes is described in the following sections.
Planning is the first stage in content creation and usually includes activities such as analysis and decision-making, frequently not controlled by a content management system. Planning involves identifying the need for content and determining what content will most effectively meet the needs of the business and the content users.
In a typical organization, planning is done at a departmental or authoring-group level. How is planning done in your organization? Is there a project manager who identifies the specific content needs and then assigns individual groups to deliver them? Or, as is often the case, is a new product or service planned, then each content area determines what to develop, develops a schedule, then goes away and develops the appropriate content? If you have no centralized coordination of content now, this will become a requirement as you move toward a unified content strategy.
Part of the planning stage is determining the need for specific types of content. How do you determine the need for specific types of content in your organization? Is each project standardized with certain types of content already defined? Or do you revisit your content user (for example, customer) needs before determining what to develop? Standard content creation is good because it ensures that a repeatable process and quality of content is created; however, it can also allow content-related problems to perpetuate if the standards are not revisited on a regular basis to ensure that they continue to meet authors’ and users’ needs. If you don’t already do so, include a review of known problems, customer complaints, and of course new requirements necessitated by the new product or service. You should assess your customer requirements annually, or every two years at a minimum, to ensure that you continue to meet customer needs.
Identify the tasks performed as part of your current planning process. Who are the people responsible for each segment in the task? Is there only one person or many? Determine whether tasks are effective or not. You want to retain what works and you want to change what doesn’t.
There are typically two aspects to design: visual design and content and structural design.
Visual design applies to the physical appearance of the published materials, such as marketing materials and customer support materials. Does your organization have standardized visual templates for the presentation of material? Are there any controls on the visual design (that is, can anyone make a change at any time)? How frequently is the design of your content reviewed?
Typically, in our experience, content and structural design happen infrequently or not at all. Customer support materials are most likely to be consciously designed with a focus on required content and structure, whereas marketing materials may be focused on fitting content into the visual design. Web materials may have some consistency from author to author, or their structure may depend upon the content author. Consistent content and structural design are an important component of a unified content strategy.
Identify the tasks performed as part of your design stage. Who are the people responsible for each segment in the task? Is there only one person or many? Determine whether tasks are effective or not. What are the standards you employ? How widely are the standards accepted?
Authoring involves creating new content or revising existing content. (Content can include text, graphics, and/or media.) Content is typically reviewed before it is published to ensure completeness and accuracy. After content is reviewed it is revised to incorporate reviewer changes.
What is involved in your authoring process? Which areas in the company author or revise content? How does each area create content? Are there any similarities among the ways in which content is created in each content area, or does each area have its own process? Who, within each area, creates content? Is that their sole job (for example, if they are a writers/illustrators/instructional designers), or is this just a portion of their job (for example, if they are business analysts)?
Content is usually reviewed before it is delivered to users. The review process can involve one or many reviewers, in addition to multiple reviews as content is refined before final approval. Approval usually happens when content is considered accurate, complete, and ready for delivery.
Identify the tasks performed as part of your review phase. Who are the people responsible for each stage of the review process? Is there only one person or are there many? Do reviewers feel the review process is effective or not?
Content is managed in many ways within an organization. Some groups, like the Internet/intranet content team, may use a web content management tool. Others may use revision control software, originally designed to manage software code, but frequently applied to content. Some content groups may use document management software, and still others may have manual control systems in which content is stored on a central server and authors follow rules for modifying and adding content. Yet others may manually control content with paper copies and traditional file cabinets.
The following are some of the common management processes.
Version control ensures that each time content is saved, it is versioned. Software management tools can automate version control, but otherwise, it must be manually enforced.
Does your organization version content? Is it tracked only in relation to a product version, or is it tracked each time the content is saved? How stringent is your tracking of versions (for example, do you meet regulatory guidelines)? Do you version whole documents or can you version the content within a document (for example, the paragraphs)?
In organizations where no management software is in place, pretty much anyone can open and modify a file. In a controlled environment, only the author or another designated person (such as an editor) can modify content. In some cases, some content is not even viewable outside a specific controlled group of authors and reviewers. Reports can be used to help managers identify who is working with content, how they work with it, and whether they are following policies and procedures.
Do you control access to your content? If you do, how effective is the control? If you don’t, does this cause problems? Do these problems indicate you should control content?
During the delivery phase, content is provided to users through a variety of methods, such as multiple media publication of content. Few companies just create content in one medium. The most common delivery medium is the Web, but paper and PDF are also important. In addition to paper and the Web, some companies produce content for wireless devices, such as telephones and PDAs, and distribute content on CDs. Although many companies publish to many different media, publication is rarely automated unless a content management system is in place. Instead, there are separate processes for each medium to which content is published.
How many media does your organization publish to? How easy or difficult is the publication process? What are the issues? Is the same or similar content published in multiple media? If so, is the content reworked for each medium?
The previous sections pose many questions that you should ask as you analyze your content life cycle. To answer these questions, you interview all the players (everyone involved in the content life cycle). This section provides sample interview questions.
Developing content not only involves many different phases; it also involves many players with differing skills participating in many steps over an extended period of time. Each player may bring to the table different insights into the issues related to the content life cycle, so it’s important to interview them to learn their different perspectives.
Typical players include:
Before restructuring the content for effective reuse and delivery to content users, you need to determine how well your current content is meeting their needs. Simply improving the way you produce content will not help users use it.
Your content is used by many different users, both internal and external. Internal users are those within your organization who use content to assist them in doing their jobs, making decisions, and supporting the customer. External users are those outside your organization (such as customers and stakeholders) who use content to get information about your company, such as what products and services you provide, how to use your products or services, and how to contact you. You may not be able to interview your customers directly, but you can interview people in your organization who do have contact with your customers, such as those who work in marketing or customer support.
User interviews are critical to help you understand how the intended audiences use and access your content, and to determine what changes should be made to accommodate them. User interviews can help you to realize how similar groups of people need similar types of information and whether the content they use contains it. User interviews can also tell you in which format users prefer to receive information. If users are currently receiving paper user guides, but prefer to receive information on your web site, you can design web-based static, customized, or dynamic information for them. Alternatively, you may find that they prefer to receive content in paper form.
Interview questions for an internal audience might include some of the following:
What is your job or role?
What challenges do you face in getting your job done?
What information do you use to help you in your job?
Has the content been designed to help you meet the challenges of your job, that is, can you find and access the correct information, when you need it? If so, what is it about the content that helps you?
What types of information do you look for in a document? How does that information help you to do your job better?
How much information is useful? What do you consider too much information? What is too little?
When do you use content?
What do you like best about the content you use? What do you like least? Why?
Interview questions for an external audience might include some of the following:
What products do you use?
Do you refer to the user documentation? If so, what do you look up most frequently? If not, why not?
Do you ever use the web site? Could you find what you were looking for on it? If so, was it useful? If you weren’t able to find it, what was missing?
Do you prefer to call customer support or do you prefer to look up the information yourself? If you prefer customer support, what types of questions do you ask them?
What do you like best about the information you receive or have access to? What do you like least?
How would you prefer to receive information?
Interviews with content users often bring to light common issues:
Too much detail/too little detail
The depth and breadth of your content may not be meeting your users’ needs. Sometimes there is too much content for users to wade through to find what they need. At other times the content may be too cursory to enable users to accomplish their tasks, or it may not be there at all.
This issue may be a result of content not being designed to meet your customers’ needs. Or it may be a result of users having different requirements. Consider providing more customized content that more accurately reflects their needs. A unified content strategy lets you easily configure different content for different customers. In addition, you could provide dynamic (personalized) content to customers to provide the level of content they require at any specific time.
Unable to find content
It’s quite common for users to have trouble finding content, especially when they are accessing it from a web site. The content may exist, but users are unable to find it or there may be so much information on the site that they don’t know where to look. Alternatively, if you provide paper-based content, it may lack an index or a clear and comprehensive table of contents.
A unified content strategy may help to address this in a number of ways. Well-thought-out metadata combined with an appropriate search engine can assist users in correctly finding the content they require. A traditional index or table of contents can benefit from more rigorous writing standards. A unified content strategy that employs dynamic content will remove the responsibility for users to know what they need just to be able to find it. Dynamic content can provide them with content specific to their roles and their current requirements.
Difficult to understand
The content may not be written with the appropriate level of detail or language to meet the needs of users. That is, there may be too much or too little detail.
A thorough understanding of user requirements can assist in addressing this issue as well as in designing customized content or dynamic content geared to users’ level of understanding. In addition, clear writing standards can help to ensure that content is well written and easy to understand.
Lack of consistency
Sometimes different authors in the same group, different groups in the same department, different departments, and even different business units all write content differently.
Detailed guidelines and standards may assist in helping authors become more consistent in their authoring, but you have to ensure that authors follow them. Structured writing and detailed models will more effectively help authors become consistent in their writing.
Asking questions related to the authoring processes is critical if you are going to uncover issues related to the writing and management of content—issues that may hinder the usefulness of the documents, their timeliness, and their overlap with other documents. For example, do authors have access to the subject matter experts and the information they need? If authors are also subject matter experts, how does this affect their jobs? Do authors have the necessary tools? Are time frames realistic? Where do authors get the information they need?
Translation is often a component of the authoring process and should be analyzed as well. Translation involves translating content and modifying it to meet local language and cultural requirements. Questions related to translation are important in understanding how content is provided to translation services, how effective the translation process is, and the issues involved in translating content in a timely and cost-effective manner.
Looking at global requirements is also very important. If you distribute content globally, global locations may have similar or very different requirements and issues.
Questions to be posed to authors might include the following:
What are your current content creation processes? Which processes are effective? Which processes are ineffective? Why are these processes effective or ineffective?
Who do you work with during the content creation process? How effective are these relationships?
How do you collect information to write your content? How well does this work?
Do you usually know about other initiatives in the organization and how they may affect what you are working on?
How do you currently handle sign off/review?
Do other departments ever see the documents you produce? Do you see theirs?
What do you do to control documents? Version control? Access control?
How do you handle authors working on sections that may be published simultaneously for different documents? (In other words, how do you ensure that content is the same when it needs to be and different when it needs to be?)
How are documents created (for example, are there stylesheets or templates)?
What tools do you use? How well do the tools support your authoring tasks?
What works well in the current processes?
What are the problems or frustrations you face in creating content?
What features would you like to see in an authoring, content management, or publishing tool?
Based on your interviews with content authors, you may discover some of the following issues, common to many organizations:
Different authoring tools that don’t interact well
Content can be created with many different tools, but sharing information among these tools is often difficult. Ensuring a similar look in content created with different tools is also difficult.
A unified content strategy that provides standard templates, consistent style names, common metadata, and standard writing practices—in conjunction with a good conversion tool—can make it easier to exchange content among tools.
Inability to find information
Authors may find it difficult to find information to create content because it is stored on multiple servers in multiple tools. To make matters worse, it may not be indexed or tracked for easy access. Authors may remember creating content, but may not remember what the file was called or where it was stored, particularly if a long period of time has elapsed since the content was created.
A unified content strategy ensures that content is stored in a single repository or can be shared across repositories. Robust metadata attached to all content makes it easier to find. Systematic reuse can make content available to authors automatically so they don’t have to go looking for it.
Ongoing change to content
Content may continue to change right up until product is shipped or content is published. Constant changes make it difficult for authors to keep up and determine all the appropriate locations where content should be modified. As a result, sometimes content that should change is missed.
Ongoing change can be a result of your organization’s development processes. A more rigorous change management process could assist in reducing the number of last-minute changes. In addition, a content management system can assist in making it easier to make changes. A content management system manages the relationships between information. If information is reused, a “where used” report can quickly identify all locations of reuse. Alternatively, when the source element is updated, all the locations in which it is reused can be automatically updated. Finally, if derivative content is reused, authors of the derivative content can be automatically informed of the change so they can incorporate the change in their element.
Lack of support for the authoring process
Sometimes the authoring process is made more difficult than it should be. Subject matter experts may not provide the information the author requires, or management may not support the author in getting the appropriate support from subject matter experts, reviewers or access to appropriate technology.
Such a lack may be a result of not understanding how important authoring is and what the authoring process requires. Ongoing education of all interested parties may help to alleviate this problem.
Hard-to-reuse content
Authors may want to reuse content, but either they can’t find it, or if they do find it, the content does not readily integrate with their documents (different styles are used, or existing styles are modified from the norm so layout may not work).
In a unified content strategy, where content is created separate from format, the content can easily be reused (no formatting is embedded that may cause problems in reuse). Common templates, style names, and metadata can assist in the sharing of content.
Decreasing document lifespan
In many organizations, content used to have a lifespan (that is, time before it needed to be changed) of about six months to a year; now, it may only exist unchanged for a few months or even a few weeks. The speed at which content must be created, modified, or completely reconfigured is increasing, making authoring very stressful. Authors often have difficulty keeping up with the pace and still ensuring quality.
A unified content strategy can’t lengthen the lifespan of a document, but it can make it easier to create content and change content rapidly to meet new needs. Modular reusable elements of content can make it easier to rapidly reconfigure content. Changing content in one place and having it automatically change in many places can make maintenance much easier. In addition, structured writing, standardized processes, and better interaction among tools can make it easier to create new content.
Translation questions might include:
What are the current localization processes? Which processes are effective? Which processes are ineffective? Why are these processes effective or ineffective?
What do you do to control documents? Version control? Access control? Distribution control?
What tools do you use? How well do the tools support your localization tasks?
Do you have written standards and guidelines for authors to prepare content for translation?
What are the problems or frustrations you face in translating content?
Translation questions often uncover the following issues:
Ongoing change to content
Changes continue to occur to the content after it has been sent for translation. Ongoing changes are problematic because translation staff may have to start over from the beginning each time new content is received. Also, a change in one piece of content may affect the translation of another piece of content. This makes it difficult to complete the translation in a timely manner.
In the past, translation staff may have received “whole” documents to translate when the source language documentation was complete. Modular content that is complete and signed off can be translated when it is ready, not at the end of the cycle. In addition, like the source language content, translated content that is changed in one location and reused in another can be automatically changed wherever it occurs. Improved change management processes can also assist in reducing last-minute changes.
Lack of standardized English
Many authors do not use standardized English, resulting in fewer “matches” with translation memory tools. Memory tools look for patterns and match common words and phrases. When a match is found based on previously translated content, the translation content is used in the current document. When different terms or phrases are used, matches cannot be made.
A unified content strategy provides writing standards for authors. These standards can assist in making content more consistent. If you localize content, standardized English can be integrated into your unified content authoring guidelines.
Lack of reviewers
In many organizations, there are insufficient reviewers to verify the translated content. Finding reviewers who are knowledgeable about the content and fluent in the language and culture is often difficult.
A unified content strategy cannot assist in finding more people to review translated content; however, if there is less content to review (content that has already been translated and reused is already reviewed), fewer reviewers are needed to meet the review requirements.
Incompatible formats
Most translation memory tools were designed to work with Microsoft RTF. Some translation memory tools accept XML or SGML files or other formats, but some do not. A document format that is not readable by the memory translation tool must be converted to a compatible format; after translation, it must be converted back and reformatted appropriately. Each time content is converted, formatting is lost and must be reapplied when converted back to the source.
A unified content strategy that separates format from content removes the issues of reformatting.
Global author questions might include:
What are the current content creation and management processes? Which processes are effective? Which processes are ineffective? Why are these processes effective or ineffective?
Do you share content with other offices? If so, how well does that work?
Do you create original content? What original content do you create and why do you create it?
Do you use the same tools as other content authors? If so, how well does that work? If not, why not?
Do you have special requirements for authoring, content management, or publishing issues that you would like to see addressed?
What features would you like to see in an authoring, content management, or publishing tool?
Questions for global authors often uncover the following issues:
Slow software
If global authors are using the same content management system and actually accessing the same physical location as other authors, their method of connection to the server can make it very slow to respond.
A web-enabled content management system may help to improve the speed.
Multi-language requirements
Global authors often have multi-language requirements, so the software they use must be able to handle a variety of languages. Some tools do this well; others do not.
Any selected tools must be able to support the requirements of multiple languages.
Reworking of the original materials
Even though global authors receive existing content, it is often not in the same order as their customers require, or the emphasis on certain content is wrong. Sometimes they need to completely rewrite the content.
If content is modular, it makes it easier for someone to reorganize it to meet different customer needs. If content must be reworked, the relationship between derivative content will be maintained so that changes to the original can be identified in the derivative.
Different processes
Global authors may have different business processes than expected. Cultural, legal, and other factors may account for their needs being different.
Although this is not directly a content management system issue, it is important to note their processes and why they are different. It can become an issue if their specific needs are ignored.
The review and approval process is a phase in the content life cycle that can be a roadblock or an enabler for the delivery of content. There can be many different types of reviewers, such as subject matter experts, managers, quality assurance or customer support personnel, compliance/standards groups, or lawyers. Each reviewer looks for different things in the content and may have different issues. To cover all the bases, make sure you interview representative reviewers from each type.
Questions to pose to reviewers might include the following:
What is the current review processes? Which processes are effective? Which processes are ineffective? Which processes do you want that you currently don’t have?
What kinds of information do you look for when reviewing content?
What standards are the materials expected to meet?
How do you communicate your requirements to authors?
What are the major issues that you identify?
What improvements would you recommend for the review process?
Issues common to the review process include the following:
Changes continuing to occur after review and sign-off
When changes continue to occur after review and sign-off, the content must be reviewed repeatedly. Alternatively, content may not receive a final review before release or publication, which may result in undetected errors.
Unified content can make the review process more efficient. Content that has changed needs to be reviewed only once, and approved content is reflected in all resulting occurrences of the content. A more rigorous change management process may assist in reducing last-minute changes.
The review task not being recognized as part of the job
Effective reviews are critical to ensure accuracy and consistency, yet the review task is not always recognized as a valid task and no time is allocated to it. This may result in overwork for reviewers, cursory reviews as reviewers try to evaluate content as quickly as possible, or delayed reviews.
Content management tools frequently incorporate workflow. Workflow tools automate the movement of content throughout the content life cycle. Identifying a step for review in the workflow and the person responsible for specific content review formalizes the review responsibility. Workflow can also identify the time required for the content to be in review. This can assist in formalizing the review role and the importance of review to the successful creation and management of content. In addition, the amount of time required to review content can be reduced because content that is reused and has been reviewed does not have to be reviewed again. This can give reviewers more time to review only new and modified content, thereby increasing the quality of their reviews.
Repetitive reviews
Reviewers often feel they review content they have already seen in another document, resulting in frustration over spending time reviewing content again. Also, reviewers may change already reviewed content, causing inconsistencies.
This problem is easily addressed with a unified content strategy. Only new or changed content is given to reviewers, resulting in less content to review. If the reviewers feel it is necessary to review new or changed content in the context of the whole document to ensure that it is still applicable, any changes they identify in reviewed content can be managed through change control. When reviewers become aware of the impact of changing content that is reused in many places, they are less likely to request change.
Inability to verify change
Often reviewers cannot compare different versions of the content (for example, the original content versus the changed content), and so they are unable to verify that changes have been made. Alternatively, reviewers may go to a lot of effort to ensure that they can verify change, increasing the time required for reviewing content.
A content management system can enable reviewers to look at the previous version, the commented version, and the revised version to verify change.
Confusion about decision-making processes
If there is a difference of opinion between the author and the reviewer, it may be unclear who has the final “say.”
Clear guidelines and processes may help to clarify who has the final authority on a difference of opinion on content. You may have authority fall in each area depending upon the issue (such as, spelling, style, grammar could be within the author’s authority, whereas accuracy of the content could up to the reviewer).
In many organizations, authors are responsible for publishing their own content. Other organizations have publications staff whose sole task is to publish content to paper or the Web. Publications staff may accept content from multiple authors and format the content appropriately for the specified media. In yet other organizations, writers may work with subject matter experts to publish content.
Publications questions might include the following:
What are the current publication processes? Which processes are effective? Which processes are ineffective? Why are these processes effective or ineffective?
What do you do to control documents? Version control? Access control? Distribution control?
How are documents created (for example, are there stylesheets or templates)?
What tools do you use? How well do the tools support your publications tasks?
What are the problems or frustrations you face in publishing content?
What features would you like to see in an authoring, content management, or publishing tool?
Several publications issues might present themselves:
Media that require reformatting
If content appears in multiple media, each designated output requires that the content be reformatted. This can be time consuming.
Reformatting for multiple media is required because traditional content creation embeds the content’s format (look and feel) in the authored content. A unified content strategy separates content from format. The use of templates, standards, consistent tags, and stylesheets makes it easy to take content and repurpose it in any media.
Translation
If content is converted into another format for translation, it must be reformatted when it is converted back. This can also be time consuming.
Again, this is the issue of format being tied to content. When content is separated from format, this is no longer an issue.
Authors who don’t always provide what is required
Authors don’t always provide all the information that is required to create the specific output (for example, a web page) and if they do, it is not in a form that can be easily formatted.
A unified content strategy provides authors with templates, structure frameworks (for example, DTD), and guidelines. Templates and structured frameworks prompt authors for required content. In some cases, authors cannot save unless they have included all the necessary content. This helps to ensure that the correct information is provided.
The Information Technology group plays an important role in selecting, managing, and deploying technology throughout the organization. To uncover technology issues, ask all interview subjects what tools they use and how effective they are. Questions about tools are included with the sample questions for each type of interview.
In addition, ask IT personnel the following:
Is there a standard for databases? If so, what is it and why is it a standard? What is the process for changing an existing standard where appropriate or adopting a second alternative standard?
Are there any specific product requirements (for example, Microsoft versus UNIX server)?
Are there issues such as firewalls for remote users?
What is the process for adopting new technology? How effective is this process?
What is the relationship between IT and the “business”? How effective is this relationship?
The following list describes some issues that are common to the IT processes:
Business units failing to include IT in their decision-making process
Sometimes business units research and acquire new technology without IT’s participation. This may result in non-standard or unsupportable technology.
Standard purchasing practices may need to ensure that products are not purchased without the support of IT, and IT may need to educate others in the value of working with IT.
Philosophical differences between business units and IT
Sometimes the relationship between business units and IT can be strained with misperceptions on both sides. IT may need to work more closely with the business units to better understand their needs and to help them work within corporate constraints, and business units need to work with IT to ensure that IT understands the business needs so IT personnel can more effectively support them.
The various phases in your content life cycle need to be identified and detailed to help you identify areas for improvement. Recognizing the issues will help you to plan and define your unified content strategy. For example, where your organization currently has “issues”, you need to improve the processes and technology to eliminate these problems. Where processes and technology are working well, you want to incorporate them into the new systems and processes where appropriate. Identifying all the issues involved will help you to determine the scope and functionality of your unified content strategy, define the criteria for selection of appropriate tools, and define the processes that must be redesigned or created.