Intranet policies and strategy docs?

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Colleen "The Stressball" DeNardo has been asked <<...to develop an intranet
strategy (high level) and the necessary policies that need to be in place
before our company will "go there.">>

The first thing to emphasize in any such policy is that it must meet user
needs first and foremost. If not, the only advantage of an electronic
collection of policy manuals over its print equivalent is that you don't
have to remove an inch of dust every month when it turns out nobody uses it.
If you don't want an intranet to become nothing more than a repository of
dead, unused electrons, you must design it so it supports the tasks users do
every day. (Jargon note: turn it into an "electronic performance support
system"!) One way to do this is to integrate standard forms with the
documentation that explains them, as we've done with some of our costing
spreadsheets.

The second thing to focus on is a maintenance strategy. Someone has to take
responsible for updating each document, and someone for editing or otherwise
reviewing those updates. Moreover, as the intranet grows in functionality,
someone has to periodically reassess whether it's continuing to meet user
needs. This includes careful initial development of the information
hierarchy so that it's efficient now but also has room to expand in the
future without sacrificing that efficiency.

--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
"User's advocate" online monthly at
www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/usersadvocate.html

Hofstadter's Law--"The time and effort required to complete a project are
always more than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's
Law."

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Collect Royalties, Not Rejection Letters! Tell us your rejection story when you 
submit your manuscript to iUniverse Nov. 6 -Dec. 15 and get five free copies of 
your book. What are you waiting for? http://www.iuniverse.com/media/techwr

Have you looked at the new content on TECHWR-L lately?
See http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ and check it out.

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.