RE: Standard list of WCMS features

Thanks to everybody who responded to my post, the information provided
was very helpful. Thanks especially to James for reminding me about the
useful papers on the Step Two site. 

I agree that the key issue is the business requirements and I am
planning to examine these as part of the engagement - I didn't mention
this in my post because its not the area I needed advice on. Bear in
mind that this is not a normal CMS implementation - we're looking at an
existing solution to evaluate its long term viability.

Just to take issue with some of the later posts however. I have to say
that I do not find comparisons between products in the same category (in
this case WCMS) meaningless, assuming, as Darrel points out the
appraisal of the features is qualitative. In most cases businesses
aren't aware of all of their requirements and may see opportunities in
the technology, that they hadn't thought of, by taking an overview of
what the products offer. 

To use the _analogy_ of consumer electronics. If I go out to buy a PDA
or a mobile phone obviously I think about how _I_ will use it, but I'm
still interested in feature specs. to find out what I'm missing if I buy
this model and not that one. The reason is that I have latent needs -
there are often features that trigger my imagination and make me think
of things that I could do that hadn't occurred to me before.

I'm not arguing that business requirements aren't important, just that
there is nothing wrong in business requirements being shaped by the
possibilities offered by technology. In my view it's a two way street.

Jason


> Hi Darrel,
> 
> Despite my last post, I agree completely with all of
> this. It's certainly impossible to compare one product
> against another, and meaningless to compare a given
> product against an *arbitrary* set of requirements.
> 
> Instead, a business requirements-driven approach is
> both easier and more effective:
> http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_requirements/index.html
> 
> Cheers,
> James
> 
> -------------------------
> James Robertson
> Step Two Designs Pty Ltd
> Knowledge Management / Content Management / Intranets
> 
> http://www.steptwo.com.au/
> [email protected]
> 
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