Michael Kimsal wrote:
This sounds odd. It *sounds* like you're saying that you or your department has developed
a product ('our CMS product') and you're now asking other departments to come in to see what they're supposed to use/sell/support.
Yes, that's what I'm saying.
Shouldn't they have been involved from the beginning? I'd have thought that getting multi-departmental agreement on goals and desired featuresNo, you're spot on. I agree with you 100%. It's not a good position to be in, but it's not *quite* as bad as it sounds.
before (or during!) development was a no-brainer. Am I way off-base here?
We're not a software development company, we're basically a communications agency with a strong web development team.
We had the requirement to build a CMS to drive the website of a particular client. The client saw it as a bespoke project, however, we engineered the CMS to be reusable and to work as a stand-alone product.
We basically met the requirements of the client's project by providing a generic toolset that could be repurposed.
What we've ended up with is actually quite good. It's a proper little CMS suitable for meeting the web/intranet/extranet requirements of a typical SME client. I won't go into details unless anyone is specifically interested.
The situation now is that we have just launched that client's site on our platform, and are looking to plan the next stage of development and to start getting it to market.
I have to present the product to the company so they have some idea of what this beast is. We're actually at quite an early stage in the development of a full rounded CMS, when you put it into perspective.
I'd focus less on 'what is a CMS?' and more on 'what needs does this product address?', whichI think I am going to have to cover the 'what is a CMS?' bit too. Some of the company will need that. Is there a tried and tested method of explaining such a thing?
you'll be more qualified to address than anyone else on this list, as its your product, not ours.
Thanks for you comments - I fully appreciate what you're saying.
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drew mclellan
author: dreamweaver mx web development
http://dreamweaverfever.com/dwd/
WaSP dreamweaver task force
http://www.webstandards.org/
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http://cms-list.org/
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