dpBestflow.org Change Management Strategy

[BobMc]

I attended the dpBestflow.org presentation in Nashville on June 17, 2010 given by Judy Herrmann.

 In conversation I heard that the web site would be constantly updated as practices change and new advanced tools and techniques are available.  This both delighted and concerned me; this site is so dense that if I drill down four levels to a page for information, how am I going to know 6 months later that that page has changed?   Judy and I discussed some ideas to deal with this situation, but they were just off the top of my head, having just discovered that this would be an issue.

I have given additional thought to the subject.  Having some experience in online system design, I would like to suggest a change management strategy.

The Problem:
With a web site that is so rich and deep in content, how does a site user who comes back to the site 6 months later, know what has changed? Recognize that changes can come in several forms, updates to existing topics, new or deleted sections within a topic or whole new subject areas.

Suggested solution::

Home Page:

In the left column of Home Page add a link “Review Updates” with “Last change 6/17/2008” below the link.  The link would take you to an Update Summary page.

Update Summary Page:

The Update Summary page would have the changes arranged in date sequence, most recent first.    With each change summary would be a link to the changed page.  This  would allow an end user to toggle to each changed page in turn and then use the “Back” key to return to the list of changes where the user could then toggle to any other topics of interest.

Changed page:

On the text page for any topic, at the top is, in red, a list of topics on that page.  To the right of the topic list is usually some white space that could be used as follows: 

Tethering with video out
Tethering with file transfer to the computer
Using manufacturer's software                                             
Using third party software                                    Updated 7/2/2010
Using the hybrid approach

At the bottom of any changed pages could be a single link that opened to Updated Summary for that individual page as an extension of that topic page that would be hidden unless expanded.  The green “Updated MM/DD/YYYY”  at the top could also be a link to that page extension.

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These suggestions are just that, suggestions.  I appreciated the work that has gone into building this valuable resource.  A well thought out change management strategy will only add to its value over time.  I hope these notes will spawn that discussion.

Thank you for you attention

Bob McAnally of Sevierville, TN

[peterkrogh]

Bob,
Those are good suggestions, and not far off of what we've been thinking. I agree that there should be some kind of flag for new or changed material. 

I think that there probably won't be a huge amount of updating. We do need to make some changes for the new IPTC Extended, now that it's in CS5 and LR3.  However, it won't be until there are some new panels for earlier versions of Photoshop, so we don't have to do it more than once.

At the moment, the bulk of new material will probably be in the form of Workflow case studies, like the recently added Camera Scanning material.

http://www.dpbestflow.org/camera-scan-workflow

Of course, there is also a related Best Practice page.

http://www.dpbestflow.org/camera/camera-scanning

There's another possibility. I think we should be asking people to sign up for update notifications.

Peter