University Web Services
Best Practices
Workflow and Business Processes
General Observations
Websites may appear to be all about design and layout and navigation, but websites are primarily about content. This means successful websites depend on people and processes. It is people who create the content, and that content gets to the web via specific processes. Websites often fail because the process for maintaining the site did not receive sufficient attention, the people doing the editing aren't responsible for the content, lack of training, or combinations of these.
The Content List
In the course of designing a website, you should have created a list of all the content: images, media, text. This list should be for each content item, and next to each should be the name of the person responsible for that content, editors of the content, and a publication/review schedule. If you didn't make such a list during the original site creation (and few of us did!), you can make such a list now.
| Item | Owner | Editor | Schedule | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Faculty Bio | Individual Faculty | Individual Faculty | Semesterly | Faculty may delegate Editor duties to Admin Asst |
| Faculty Picture | Individual Faculty | Admin Asst | As needed | Photos should come from campus photographer |
| Programs/Majors Description | Admin Asst | Admin Asst | Semesterly | Derive from Registrar or verify with Registrar |
| Office Hours | Individual Faculty | Admin Asst | Semesterly | |
| Message from Chair | Chairperson | Admin Asst | Annually | |
| Department News | Chairperson | Admin Asst | Monthly | The Chair may delegate news creation to multiple people |
Notes
- "Item" will often be a web page but may be only an item on the web page. An example would be office hours.
- "Owner" means the person responsible for the information. This person may actually write the text or design the image, or may delegate that, but the responsibility for accuracy and timeliness cannot be delegated.
- "Editor" means the person who codes the HTML, puts the information into the CMS, or otherwise causes the item to appear on the public web.
- "Schedule" means the item gets reviewed this often. It may get revised as well, but at least it must be reviewed by the Owner.
Process
All content will have a process: who originates, who receives, the format for the content, and who posts. For example, a process might be that one week prior to the beginning of the semester, each faculty member will email to the departmental secretary a copy in word processing format of the syllabus for each course being taught that semester. The secretary will convert all files to PDF format and will forward these to the site's web editor. That person will upload the files and will update all appropriate links. All syllabi will be available on the site by the first day of classes.
It will require a fair amount of work to lay out a process for all content at your site, but the time spent will be gained back in coming semesters. Moreover, creating a workflow accomplishes another important goal: making clear lines of responsibility. Everyone in the organization will come to understand that the website isn't something that just happens, nor is it the job of "the web person." Indeed, the web person's role is comparatively trivial; it's the content providers that are important, and they have specific responsibilities and specific deadlines.
Other Considerations
Workflow should be part of the regular review process and part of the annual planning process.
- Who will be hiring your web editor?
- Who will do the performance evaluation? Does that person have sufficient knowledge to judge the employee's work?
- Editor duties need to be a recognized part of the job, for whomever is assigned this. When that person leaves, web skills must be part of the requirements for the new hire.
The web site is the primary public face of the university. Department heads need to review their sites on a regular basis. This is not a responsibility they can delegate.