Big Picture

One of the recurring themes we see across all our clients is the issue of managing the creation, distribution and implementation of assets throughout the entire web lifecycle.

The majority of the time, the “web group” is the one that carries the banner for being successful since the website has the most visibility to everyone in the organization. If the product mini-site didn’t launch on time, it’s glaringly obvious to everyone. And unfortunately, it’s easiest to point fingers at the web group for dropping the ball.

However, what we commonly find is that the problem lies much farther up stream. There a number of groups involved in any website implementation (i.e., product management, marketing, brand, legal, etc.) It’s just that the web group is in charge of putting it all together at the end and launching it at the last minute crossing their fingers that everything is correct and approved and on time.

In essence, all these groups tend to perform their role independent of each other and only collaborate when necessary to move to the next stage. In order to promote collaboration and transparency throughout all the various groups, we have developed a governance model that creates a framework for successfully managing the entire web lifecycle.

The goal is to gain visibility to all activity no matter the current status in an effort to proactively prepare ahead of time to eliminate the last minute scramble that so many web groups deal with on a daily basis.

There are three primary components to Level Five’s web governance model: people, process, and standards. These components are dependent on each other, and a successful model fully integrates all of them.

People:

Organizational structure of resources that have defined roles and responsibilities

It is the responsibility of the organization to make decisions regarding all levels of process and standards within the web governance model. A successful web governance model depends on roles and responsibilities being defined in order to ensure accountability.

Process:

Organizational methods and tactics for the creation, communication, and development of new web properties

The web governance process is the workflow of how web deliverables move through the organization from concept to implementation. The scope of the process must include all stages of the web lifecycle and must represent all parts of the organization.

Standards:

Creative and development guidelines for executing web deliverables

Brand guidelines, design style guides, and code standards are all part of web governance standards. Standards also help define the technology methods that are necessary to effectively execute the web governance process.

Learn more about Level Five’s web governance model