joe gollner: tales from the crypt

Tales from the Crypt

Content Projects that went Horribly Wrong

Joe Gollner | @joegollnerManaging DirectorGnostyx Research Inc.

The Content Horror Show

Content Pipeline Rupture

A Perfect Failure

A Digital Boondoggle

The Slow DescentAnd a glimmer of hope

@joegollner | @gnostyx 3

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here – The Inferno


It sounded like a good idea

Content Pipeline Rupture

Regulatory Information for the Energy Sector

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Canadian Energy Sector Regulatory Agency


Regulatory Agency was responsible for: Regulations

Process Documentation

Submissions

Public Consultation Outcomes

Judgments

Pressures: Growing volume & complexity of regulations & submissions

Growing complexity of the consultation process

Pressure to bring costs under control or even reduce them

Pressure to shorten the process cycle times

Off to a Great Start – No Expense Spared


Top Tier Management Consulting Firm Conducted a comprehensive process review

Collaborated with stakeholders to re-envision the future

A Leading Content Management Solution Provider Facilitated a wide-ranging analysis & modeling activity

Developed target content models with rich semantics

CMS & Publishing Technology Vendors Engaged to tailor their tools to support

The re-envisioned business processes

Fully customized authoring environments (XML Editors & Office Suites)

Sophisticated management & publishing services

Excitement was Building as Things Moved Ahead


So how do you thinkthis turned out?

Who could blame themBusiness-focusedconsulting methodology

Best-of-BreedContent Technologypartners engaged

Stakeholder involvement funded

Tools customized tofit the business

Big Budget

The project was an unmitigated…


Disaster

How Bad?

Project killed after10 years of work

Over $10M spent Real cost was higher

SystemNever really worked

Never deployed

IndustryWent political


What went wrong? Technical Failures

Too fancy by halfSemantic markuptaken to the extreme The Linda Blair of

Schemas

All Tools challenged Customizations were

doomed to failure

System demands spiraled out-of-control


What went wrong? Enraged Users

User ExperienceBeyond Diabolical

Instability just made it worse

Key User GroupLawyers!

Automated PublishingReplaced industry formatting of submission reports

Lawyers: “No Way!”


What Really Went Wrong? Lesson Learned

Fundamental Error MadeRegulatory processes areinformation exchanges Authority over &

responsibility for exchangeswas everything

Content Technologies do not address those types of problems Agency did not have a

“content problem” at all


IT Group has this covered

A Perfect Failure

Major Government Legal Department

@joegollner | @gnostyx

In an online forum, someone said

“Surely every CMS project delivers some benefits”

16

I could not be silent…

Project Context

Ministry of JusticeOversees legal process

Government’s legal arm

User CommunityMostly lawyers

StakeholdersPretty much everyone

Some real content problems


Chief Information Officer (CIO) Leaps into Action

Content Management System (CMS) was what was needed

Project chartered

Big Budget secured

Team assembled

Requirements gathered

Technical architecture defined

Candidate CMS identifiedfrom a Key Technology Partner

Fit into Enterprise IT architecture


Somewhat Predictably Disaster Ensues

Litany of issuesLayers of security prevented lawyers from logging in

Once set, the CMS could not be modified

No one could use the system


CIO was not the Listening Type

Users tried hardSought answers

IT GroupMacho culture

Did deals

Valued partnerships

Refused to admit failure


The Perfect Failure QED

Massive CMS InfrastructureZero Users

Zero content assets

Technology PartnerCancelled product

Provided no migration path

DecommissionedComplete write-off


What went wrong? What didn’t go wrong?

Staunch refusal by IT toAcknowledge thatcontent is different They just needed to design

the right (perfect) system

Consider expanding their knowledge or skill sets

Acknowledge the problem Even when it was obvious


When Design becomes the Problem

A Digital Boondoggle

Naming Names: Canadian Federal Government

Government information & services available online

Over twenty years of heavy investment

Big BudgetLiterally billions of dollars spent


Always Invested in the Best: Tools, Techniques, Experts


The Result: An Online Horror Show

From Bad to WorseRegular redesign efforts undertaken

Web CMS projects always underway

Best-of-the-best consultants engaged

Every UX standard & innovation adopted

& Things just got worse


What Went Wrong? Example of Accessibility

Accessibility a PriorityFrom the very start

Policies & Procedures mandated Accessibility

Technologies DeployedWeb CMSs

Accessibility Validators

Accessibility Achieved: 0%


Classic Illustration of Barnaclization

BarnaclizationThe accrual of individually advantageous innovations

That collectively degrade, and ultimately destroy, the overall system

Canadian Federal Government Online presence

Steaming pile of innovation


What Really Went Wrong? Misguided Effort

It is a Content ProblemConsistency & currency cannot be achieved purely at the UX level It is not solely, or even

primarily, an information transactional problem

Good User Experience is a total system attribute Calls for deep integration

Calls for an enterprise-grade content solution


The Founders Lose their Faith

The Slow Descent

To Begin at the Beginning Where it all began


United States Department of Defense (DoD)

US Department of Defense1980s – Bankrolled Open Content Technologies

1993 – Paul Strassmann chastised DoD for spending over $6 Billion on Content Technologies in less than 10 years

By 2000 – The pace of investment did not slow down


Information Executive- Xerox- Department of Defense- NASAUnder-appreciated Author on Managing Information & Technology

The Result is Sobering A Wake-up Call

2000sDoD Publishing Groups

Began seeking alternatives

Wanted to replace 30 years of investment in Content Technologies SGML

XML


Get Rid of XML!

The Slow Descent How Did We Get Here?

It is important to understand how & why this circumstance came about


Author Review Publish Publication User

In the beginning, life for authors & publishers was relatively simple

The age of the Typing Pool & Typesetters

The age of Desktop Publishing

Authors had a direct line-of-sight onto how Publications would look

Publishing was expensive but easily understood

Introducing SGML: The Birth of Content Technologies


SGML-based publishing systems pursued efficiency & more effective publications through enhanced automation

But authors had to adapt to a more abstract & formal experience

But publishers had to manage a more complex system

Author

Publish

PublishingSystem

Tagging

Outsource

Review

Publish

Publication User

Authoring & Publishing with the

Standard Generalized Markup Language

XML: The rebirth of Content Technologies


XML-based systems promised better alignment with Web Technologies

But authors had to consider many more publishing channels

But publishers had to manage even more complex systems

Authoring & Publishing with the

Extensible Markup Language

Author

Publish

PublishingSystem

Tagging

Outsource

Publish PublicationOutsource

Tagging

Publication

Publication

User

User

User

Review

Decades of Innovation had become a Constraint

Some Sobering Lessons

AuthorsFound the innovations to be alienating

Breakdown in Rhetorical Agency

PublishersFound new systems to be unmanageable


Out of the Darkness A Ray of Hope

But Wait!XML could not be eliminated

Single-SourcePublishing wasstill essential

New online services needed content with some smarts

The benefits of XML had to stay but the problems had to go


The Singing Content Solution XML on the inside

A New Approach was needed

Moved closer to mainstream IT infrastructure

Moved closer to authors


Author Review

Publication

Publication

User

User

Publication User

Publish

Can we salvage some hope?

What Have We Learned?

The Bad Things seen in Each Story

AlienationLosing touch with users & goals

Big BudgetsRoad to ruin

Barnaclization

ConfusionMistaking standards for solutions

Mixing up content & information problems


Sources of Hope

Horror Stories proveSerious problems exist

Organizations will invest in solutions

Content TechnologiesCan solve major problems when applied To the right problems

As effective, sustainablecontent solutions


Content Solutions are the Answer to Information Problems


Making Connections


Joe GollnerManaging DirectorGnostyx Research Inc.1 Rideau Street, Suite 700Ottawa, Ontario, [email protected]

Twitter: @joegollner

Content Philosopher Blog:www.gollner.ca

[email protected]

joe gollner: tales from the crypt

Leadership & Management