Getting started

This section is designed to identify why individuals and organisations may choose to use a web CMS, and what should be considered before selecting a system.

1. Why use a CMS?
2. Determining your needs

A content management system can be a useful tool in creating, maintaining, and managing websites. Used effectively, a CMS may help you to:

• manage workflows and processes, thereby improve the ability of those charged with maintaining and coordinating web content to do so
• segregate content from design, which improves the chances of presenting a visually consistent website
• reduce the need for content authors to understand or develop html coding skills (as many CMSs use natural language editing tools)
• provide automation of some processes (for example, linkchecking), which may improve efficiency
• provide version control and other quality assurance measures
• build web accessibility standards into your website

Used well, a CMS can vastly improve the information architecture of your site. As Lou Rosenfeld's Venn diagram (below) shows, content is intrinsic to information architecture. If, as Lou asserts in his interview with the Rockley Report, "a well-designed information architecture maps the needs of users to available content" and provides "content inventory and modeling to know what content is available and how its pieces relate to each other", then the ability to manage content effectively and efficiently is key in producing quality IA. A CMS has the capacity to do just that.

_{Lou Rosenfeld's Venn diagram as presented in the Rockley Report's feature article:
Information Architecture is Just Plain Fun! An Interview with Lou Rosenfeld}

Most CMSs have the ability to separate design from content. This can improve information architecture because once you get your website structure in place a CMS can maintain that structure. This is done by limiting the access of different content authors to these structural elements and making it more difficult for 'rogue' structural and design elements to creep into your website.

A CMS can also improve the ability of the information architect/web professional to manage the site. Many CMSs have the capacity to set workflows, editorial processes and enforce standards onto the site. For example, through your CMS you may be able to set a workflows that dictates content must be 'approved' by one or more individuals before going live, thereby improving quality assurance. Another example may be setting the CMS to enforce accessibility data to be inputted by the content author, such as alternative text for images.

CMS functionality does vary greatly, so selecting a CMS that suits your needs is critical. There are many on the market; each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Identifying what you really want from a CMS is the first step towards obtaining a CMS that 'best fits' your needs. Continue reading to find out more about determining your needs.

It's important to choose a CMS that best fits you and/or your organisation's needs. To effectively evaluate any CMS, you must know your own needs and requirements.

Below is a list of questions you may want to ask yourself, or relevant people within your organisation, before deciding what CMS to go with.

• Who will be managing the content within the CMS? What technical skills do they have?
• Are you prepared to up skill these people in order to use a CMS, or should the CMS mostly fit in with existing skills levels?
• What operating environment(s) do we have now? Do we expect a CMS to integrate with these environments?
• Is it important that a new CMS manages workflows and processes as well as content itself?
• Do we require a CMS product that is fully supported, or will we have internal technical know-how and resources to manage, maintain and update the CMS?
• What is our budget?
• How much content do we need to put into a CMS (how many pages are in our website)?
• What kind of functionality do we require within our site? (eg. Is it text-based and static, dynamic with alot of user interaction and social software, highly visual with lots of graphics etc)