Q & A with James Robertson

James Robertson is an author and content management expert based in Sydney, Australia. His company is Step Two Designs.

Tell us about your professional background.

I originally graduated as an applied mathematician (it seemed like a good idea at the time), although I've been a programmer for a lot longer than that. Nowadays, I like to consider myself a "reformed geek": someone who still understands the technical details, but is able to actually communicate with people.

I live and work in the inner-city district of Sydney (Australia), which is a great place to be. I can walk everywhere, and I use my car no more than once or twice a week, if that.

What projects do you have underway now?

The Step Two Designs Web site is probably most notable for the number of articles and whitepapers we've published over the last 18 months. I've stuck pretty closely to a schedule of at least one article each month, and it adds up over time. They now stand as one the largest collections of entirely vendor-neutral material on intranets and content management.

In terms of other projects, there's plenty happening. To name but a few:
I am just making the final updates to the Review of Content Management for the NSW Government. This was initiated by the state government, and looks at both content management issues and product adoption.

I am currently writing four "Better Practice Checklists" for the federal government (NOIE) on the topics of: selecting a CMS, implementing a CMS, intranet guidelines and improving search engine design.

I am planning to update our Content Management Requirements Toolkit when things slow down over Christmas (all current customers will get a free update, regardless of when they purchased the first version).

There are also a number of other reports and toolkit on the way, on both intranets and content management (although I can't reveal the details at this point).

What are some of the most challenging issues in content management these days?

We've seen the first couple of generations of projects come and go, and unfortunately many of those were unsuccessful, particularly the 'enterprise content management' solutions.

I think our challenge now is to recognize the importance of the non-technology issues in a content management project, including:

• usability
• information architecture
• authoring processes and models
• content development
• change management
• internal communications
• knowledge management

It's these non-technology aspects that lead to project success, and ongoing viability. Thankfully, I think the pendulum is swinging back from the narrow deployments of the past, and I'm looking forward to seeing some really successful projects over the next year."

What's on the market now for CM, and what technology solutions would you recommend? Are there any new systems on the horizon we should know about?

It's great to see that prices continue to fall, while capabilities increase. We are also seeing the rise of truly 'off-the-shelf' solutions targeted at common needs, the challenge is now to pick the right product that most closely matches the organization's unique requirements.

"Beyond the products, the market is moving towards better managing content other than just Web pages, in an integrated way. This will be a slow change, however, as it depends on the maturity of information management processes and capabilities within organizations.

This is where I would like to see the horizon expand: organizations focusing on improving their internal understanding of content management issues and processes. Only once this is done will they be ready to really tackle the huge transformation required for 'enterprise content management' to be a success.

When you advise your clients about CM and KM, what philosophy or strategy do you try to encourage them to follow?

When tackling content management projects, I like to keep my approach pretty simple, and I therefore advise clients to:

• Start by identifying staff and client needs for information, and use this knowledge to drive site design and product selection.
• Focus on determining their business requirements for a content management system, with particular emphasis on using scenarios to explore specific needs.
• Concentrate on meeting their current (and well-understood) content management needs, while keeping an eye towards the future.
• Emphasize the building of internal knowledge and capability regarding content management approaches and processes.
• Manage their risks in a rapidly-changing marketing, by considering approaches such as pilot projects or limited deployments.
• Remember the non-technological aspects of the project: these are the ones that bring long-term benefits to the organization.

At the end of the day, neither content management or knowledge management is rocket-science. If projects maintain their focus on identifying staff (and client) needs, and meeting them, success shouldn't be too hard to achieve.