Christopher Warner "So, it's not like the code is my brain; keep it"

The Myth that Content Management is easy

The Myth
Content Management is easy. You download one of the numerous systems available, plug-in your data. Something magical happens (???) and out comes a professional looking and operating website. This obviously manages all of your content from all different sources with ease. All you have to do is make a template and you're done! If this sounds like something you've heard and are suspiciously weary of. You should be, because it's all snake oil! If it was that easy I would probably quit my job and go study law. Since it is not, let us continue first by giving a brief background on what content management is.

What is Content Management
Content Management at it's most basic definition is actually the phrase in and of itself; the process of managing content. That content can be for example videos, artwork, bills and/or records. This usually means that the "content" is whatever the business, is in the business, of creating and offering to it's customers. Initially, this idea sounds pretty simple and one should be able to rather effectively deploy a solution; at least in the form of software. The often mistake made in relation to content management is believing that it is just about a website. This is actually only a visual piece of the whole content management problem. The biggest issue when dealing with content management falls with the people who actually create the content and those defining the process by which it will be available. This tends to lead back to the struggle between a very process oriented aspect of business and a very creative aspect. In the best case scenario one would have a team who is extremely creative and process oriented but sadly that golden egg is few and far between. So, at the very heart of content management is the process by which the content is created and made available.

Process is the big ticket item that separates a quality product from a mediocre product and in regards to content management it's absolutely critical. For example; two bakers with the exact same ingredients and budgets are in the process of baking bread for a large audience in three weeks. So in this example the content is the bread. One kneads his dough a certain way, makes sure his ingredients are exactly at the right temperature, works tirelessly on presentation and how he'd like to best show off to his patrons the fruits of all his hard work. He spends those three weeks in advance hiring the right people to help him in this process and making sure all of his employees from the door man to the waiter and the rest of his team know the process. This process is obviously unique to baking the bread and he's honed it so he can serve a large audience. Our other baker does none of that; He has a process that will work for a couple of loaves of bread but he figures that this will work for a large audience, it can't be that different he says. So he hires more people, none of which know the process, they don't know the business and stick to their jobs as a door man or waiter. He thinks about presentation and hires someone for that but this person doesn't know the process either. No one understands the process but him! However, there are currently no problems and things seem fine! Three weeks is here and our first baker's bread is flying off the shelf faster than he can create loaves. His patrons are impressed with his service, his product and his entire team. It seems the waiter, even the door man are aware of what it takes to create quality bread and the atmosphere tends to hold this true! It's amazing bread and when you think of bread, you think of his shop. He even seems to take pride in showing off his process and the way he goes about bringing about an excellent product, in this case, the bread. Our second baker isn't as successful. His bread isn't horrible but he can see it's no where near as good as our first baker. He had the same ingredients, the same budget and has the same amount of people. So why isn't his bread selling just as well as out first baker? Process.

The first bakers team is inherently aware of what it takes to create bread and utilize their skills to aide in the process of creating it. The waiter, knows how many customers to seat at any given time depending on how fluffy and warm the bread may be. The chef's know exactly what temperature the oven needs to be at and exactly how many times to knead the dough, the waiters know that only real butter will do for this specific loaf and which red wine will go great with it. Everyone is helping the process of creating not just great bread but an environment that goes along with it.

The second bakers team though the bread is not horrible, have no process. The waiter has no idea what wine goes well with the bread. The doorman is seating people as they come and some patrons are receiving cold bread. To top it all off our second baker is working countless man hours because the other bakers are screwing up loaves left and right! What's wrong here, the process!

The most generic setting is the above when it comes to content management; or for that matter any product or service provided. Industrial institutions have figured this out long ago (many of them have decided to remove the human element all together and have replaced them with industrial robots); there are even shows dedicated to process ie: "How It's Made" is an excellent example of how many of the products we use on a daily basis are created and is dedicated to showing these processes.

Content Management isn't just about software
Part of the problem is the earlier misconception that if you have a content management system it can easily manage your content. Instead it should be seen as part of the solution to the larger problem of process. If the CMS can't or doesn't fit your process then you simply should not be using it. A general issue or concern seems to be the lack of people with sufficient technical knowledge making decisions about the actual technology or ceding and outsourcing those decisions to a technical group or party who does not understand the business or the process. Even in the best case scenario if an attempt is made to learn the process, a process may simply not exist. In this case there needs to be a concerted effort made between parties to task one person with the job of making sure the process fits the needs of the business to create X,Y,Z product. This maybe the project manager or even some member from each team sitting down and coming up with the process. There may even be a need to create the role of process manager.

Software in this case is only a tool to solve a problem. If the problem isn't known and there are no details or process in resolving the problem, one only gets a mash of confusion towards a launch date. No one is happy and the goal of helping the business itself has failed. Your customers are certainly not happy and if at all they must utilize your software, website, product. They are doing so because they have no other choice. This is the standard defacto attitude towards many products, websites, etc out on the market today. It's not different in technology except for the fact that many people can easily type in a competitors.com and easily be using a higher quality experience. As operating systems become more commodity and the web and it's infrastructure become more intricate to business as usual. It's incumbent upon people making these decisions to stress process.

How can I make content management easy?
The truth is that there is really never any easy. When solving new problems, it's always hard. Sorry; that's just the the hard cold reality. However, to begin the first thing should be deciding what type of content you plan on managing? Are you managing a bunch of text that you plan to display in a log format? Then maybe Wordpress would be useful in that context. Do you plan on having a site with terrabytes of video and music? Wordpress would not be as useful in that context. So you want to begin by defining what the content is and how you plan to manage it; again, process. Does the video need to be converted several times before it's reviewed by someone looking for artifacts and then refactored and sent for color correction all before it's reviewed by an editor or producer? Is this part of the process and how does that work? Do you plan on creating a custom tool that can manage that process up until you post a snippet on YouTube or do you plan to serve this video via another service. How does this experience meld with the goals of the business and the overall product. There is a balance that needs to be achieved in regards to reutilizing tools that maybe able to help the process and locking ones content up in the wrong tool where you begin to conform to the tool instead. These are all questions and facets that one needs to think about in regards to content management and sadly it's never an easy or simple process.