A Team Approach to Information Architecture

A case study of a team approach to information architecture at Duke University by graduates of the Duke Continuing Studies Technical Communication Certificate program.

Olson, Amy, Sangita Koli and Dino Ruggiero. Carolina Communique (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Information Design>Content Management

Better Content Management through Information Architecture

Content Management Systems promise so much: content is easier to publish, easier to update, and easier to find and use. Lots of promises, but do CMSs really deliver? Masood Nasser examines why Content Management Systems often fail and shows how Information Architecture can come to the rescue.

Nasser, Masood. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Content Strategy

Blog 101: An Overview of Weblog Technologies  

A weblog or 'blog' is a Web site with content consisting of a series of discrete postings added sequentially and presented in reverse chronological order. Historically used for personal Web sites, blogs in fact represent a form of lightweight content management that can be adapted to virtually any topic, including technical communication. The recent explosion of blogs is in part a result of the availability of publishing tools that simplify their creation. These tools vary significantly in capability, setup, and ease of use, and each offers advantages and disadvantages.

Berry, Robert R. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Blogging

Enterprise Agility: SOX and Enterprise Information Integration  

The intent of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) can be characterized as risk reduction: reduce errors, inhibit fraud, and provide shareholders with transparent equal-access to material knowledge. But implementation is principally procedural controls and documentation, under threat of penalty. The vague parts of SOX are where the real leverage lies: principles of intent, and corporate transparency.

Dove, Rick. Paradigm Shift International (2005). Articles>Knowledge Management>Information Design>Documentation

Enterprise Architecture Essentials, Part 6: Manageability

Organizations today face the challenge of two important enterprise architecture requirements: the need for agility and the overhead of regulatory governance. These requirements can be seen as mutually antagonistic -- if business processes must be flexible, then governance of those processes may be difficult. This article, part six in a six-part series, explores the notion of using manageability as a key enterprise architecture (EA) quality attribute to solve this problem. EA development is an ongoing process, and the central idea of this article is that by applying manageability as an EA attribute, the organizational processes, systems, and software become manageable.

Morris, Stephen B. IBM (2007). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Regulation

Facets Are Fundamental: Rethinking Information Architecture Frameworks    

This article presents three problems with existing information architecture frameworks. First, they are too focused on organizing information based on topic. Second, they treat facets as a supplemental form of classification. Third, they conflate the organization and representation of information. Analysis of these three problems suggests that information architects should provide navigation systems and user interfaces'based on an underlying framework of faceted classification'that allow users to flexibly navigate through complex information spaces in the service of particular tasks and goals. To this end, this article introduces a faceted classification framework, and provides an example of a model framework, called 'Facets are Fundamental' (FaF). The purpose of the FaF framework is to explicitly designate faceted classification (rather than a hierarchical classification) as the starting point of the IA development process. Both of these approaches encourage information architects to employ non-topical methods for organizing and representing information.

Crystal, Abe. Technical Communication Online (2007). Articles>Information Design>Project Management

The High Cost of Not Finding Information  

In an increasingly information-based world, we turn out complex products that are less tangible than they are knowledge-based. The very complexity of the decisions we make and the products we manufacture makes it impossible to check, test and retest them adequately enough to be sure that they will function properly in any circumstance. Information disasters are a growing threat, and one that few businesses can ignore.

Feldman, Susan. KMworld (2004). Articles>Knowledge Management>Information Design>Search

Identifying and Representing Electronic Engineering Resources: A Case Study in Knowledge Management

Current methods of access to the electronic resources offered by the Internet make little use of basic principles of information organization and retrieval, relying instead on relatively informal and, at times, ad hoc approaches. This creates problems in terms of the volume of information retrieved by a user of the Internet and the precision with which that information matches the user's information need. There is a plethora of engineering resources available on the Internet, yet no systematic method of retrieval is available to engineers who are in need of the most current information in their discipline. The Internet is often the only immediate source of the most current engineering resources. The purpose of this project is to identify electronic resources that could be of value to engineers and to represent these resources in a manner that enables engineers to make timely, informed decisions about the usefulness of the resources. This paper addresses the specific objectives the project which include: 1) the development of selection criteria for electronic engineering resources; 2) the identification of electronic resources of interest to engineers, as defined by the selection policy; and 3) the creation of abstracts for these electronic resources that will include at least two hyperlinks to other related electronic resources.

Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, Rochelle Logan, Christopher Brown. ISRDP in Digital Libraries (1997). Articles>Knowledge Management>Information Design>Engineering

Information Architects and Their Central Role in Content Management

The process of content management begins when an organization comes to the realization that it needs a system to manage content. While the interpretation of the term content management (CM) can be as simple as a set of guidelines for organizing and maintaining content, more typically today it means a sophisticated software-based system. A full-featured content management system (CMS) takes content from inception to publication and does so in a way that provides for maximum content accessibility and reuse and easy, timely, accurate maintenance of the content base.

Warren, Rita. ASIST (2001). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Content Strategy

Information Architecture and Business Strategy

Information architects need a good understanding of business strategy and its relationship to information architecture.

Morville, Peter. Argus Center (2000). Articles>Information Design>Management

Information Architecture and Ulcers

Being an information architect can be stressful. There are certain points in the design process that are more stress-inducing than others.

Morville, Peter. Argus Center (2000). Articles>Information Design>Project Management

Information Architecture of Content Management

When people think about content management, they generally think about it from a systems perspective, focusing primarily on tools and technology. While it is true that content management usually requires a technological solution, it also requires that content be designed for reuse, retrieval, and delivery to meet your authors' and customers' needs. Content management requires that tools be configured to support authoring, reviewing, and publishing tasks, but first, those tasks must be designed. Designing content and the processes to create, review, and publish it is what information architecture is all about. The Information Architecture section of The Rockley Report will focus on the different aspects of information architecture for content management. This article introduces you to some of the components of information architecture that we will cover in The Rockley Report over time.

Rockley, Ann. Rockley Bulletin (2004). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Content Strategy

The Information Management Model  

Our grasp of single-sourcing has come a long way in the past few years. This is thanks in part to technology that makes it easier to reuse content and in part to our pundits that introduce new ideas into our community. However the practice of single-sourcing is not new. For decades other industries, such as manufacturing and software engineering, have been producing components designed to be reused in products across their companies and their industries. What we lack that has made single-sourcing successful in other domains is a common standard for the components. To reach any real measure of success, we must seek to standardize how we manage information. The Information Management Model is an idea that aims to take a step in that direction.

Hanna, Rob. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Knowledge Management>Information Design

Information Modeling: A Practical Approach  

Information models are a critical component of single sourcing, enterprise content management, and dynamic content management. The information model is your blueprint for the effective writing, structuring, and delivery of reusable content. This session explains how to design information models, including information product models and element models. It also explains the role of metadata and how to effectively design it.

Rockley, Ann. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Information Design>Content Management>Project Management

Information Planning for Successful Online Documentation  

Creating an information plan should be the first phase of any publication development life cycle, whether hard copy or online. The plan is a tool for reporting the results of your research about your audience, their tasks, the market, and the product. The plan presents the basic organization and content of the publications you intend to build, effectively directing the documentation team to produce a publication with very specific goals in mind.

Stevens, Dawn M. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Information Design>Management>Documentation

Integrating Content Management with Portals: Meeting Enterprise Information Needs  

Effective communication is a top priority for most businesses. To help create, manage, and access information that is used to conduct e-business, technologies such as content management (CM) and enterprise information portals (EIP) are dominating IT and CIO discussions. We will review how these rapidly evolving technologies come together to provide benefits for enterprise implementers. Given the historical deployment of these technologies, many associate the application of content management solutions to externally facing sites, serving transactional e-business needs; and the application of portals to internally facing sites for general employee access to a wide range of information sources and applications. However, both technologies can provide support for the complete information lifecycle, from information creation to management to delivery.

CAP Ventures. Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Content Strategy

Knowledge Audit: Is it Necessary for Your Organization?  

Views on various dimensions of the knowledge audit (KA) process, and how organizations can use this tool to achieve organizational objectives. During the discussion, participants analyzed the pre-requisites, advantages, and process of the knowledge audit. This article presents a summarized version of the issues discussed.

George, Ginu. International Journal for Technical Communication (2007). Articles>Information Design>Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management--Issues and Challenges in the Corporate World

The first of those challenges is merely getting individuals within the company to communicate with each other, wherever they are located. Many organizations have trouble getting people to share information who aren't on the same floor, so adding remote workers or those in other geographical locations can prove difficult. Corporations are realizing how important it is to 'know what they know' and to be able to make maximum use of the knowledge. This knowledge resides in many different places, such as, databases, knowledge bases, filing cabinets, and people's heads, and it is impossible to keep track of and make use of this distributed knowledge. Knowledge Management (KM) needs careful planning and analysis. While technology can support KM, it is not the be all and end all of KM. Knowledge Management decisions should be based on who (people), what (knowledge), and why (business objectives). Critical success factors for KM can be broadly categorized into four classes: people, processes, technology, and sustained strategic commitment. The four pillars of the model are also used to explain the critical success factors in Knowledge Management.

Kumar, Pankaj and Jaya Kalra. International Journal for Technical Communication (2007). Articles>Information Design>Knowledge Management>Workplace

Managing the Development of Information Products: An Experiential Learning Strategy for Product Developers    

Increasing numbers of technical communicators and professionals in such diverse fields as software engineering, computer science, training, and human factors in the product development mix together. The process of developing information products has become cross-functional and interdisciplinary. Functional distinctions between those now at work in that process have blurred. Technical communicators have begun to define usability requirements up front and to participate in product design decisions; software engineers have begun to worry about the product's ability to communicate with users; and HCI (human-computer interaction) professionals work within the product development team on a variety of levels to address user concerns, from the user's work context to the product's dialogue and messaging strategies.

Skelton, T.M. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Management>Information Design

The Meaning of Knowledge Management

We hear the term knowledge management bandied about. It sounds suspiciously like a trendy new phrase for what we used to call 'documentation.' In truth, knowledge management is more than documentation. It encompasses documentation, data management, library management, and information design. Knowledge management is increasingly important; as the amount of content has increased, the task of locating the information in the content has become more difficult. You see, information is different from content. And knowledge is something that derives from information.

HyperWrite (2004). Articles>Knowledge Management>Information Design>Content Management

Requirements of Content Management Systems: Definition According to Need

In all companies, the requirements of an editorial system are worked out individually from the analysis of existing functioning and the definition of editorial and publication processes required in the future. The first important criteria for analysis are change frequencies and degree of reuse of the published information. The description of the information types as well as translation sequences constitute another starting point for the definition of a modular work process (single-source principle) and publication options (cross-media publishing).

Ziegler, Wolfgang. tekom (2005). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Workflow

Stalking Information in its Natural Habitat  

You know how to write, but do you know what to write? Much of the information which is needed to plan and execute a project is not technical detail about the product. You need access to specific corporate information to produce the required documentation. The flow of information to and from Tech Pubs (the technical publications department) is determined by several factors, including the company’s commitment to procedures (such as ISO-9000), the corporate culture, the physical location of the department, and the personalities involved. By being aware of this information flow, you can take control of your projects and produce documentation which is appropriate and on time.

Guren, Leah. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Knowledge Management>Information Design

Storage and Enterprise Content Management  

Almost one-third of the users reported that more than 40 percent of the storage spending is for unstructured documents and information--I think that percentage will continue to grow annually. Further, AIIM President John Mancini, who prepared the report, found that larger organizations especially are aggressively pursuing consolidation and rationalization of their storage and archiving strategies--but that cost is not the prime motivation behind those activities.

McKellar, Hugh. KMworld (2006). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Content Strategy

Structured Content Management in the Enterprise  

As other areas within organizations begin to consider structured content for the same reasons as technical communication departments, technical communicators have a golden opportunity to assist others in their move toward structured CM.

Rockley, Ann. Intercom (2007). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Content Strategy