This week in links - week 6, 2008

Matthew Hodgson writes about the need for more granularity in user roles in order to make the right decisions on what kinds of functional requirements that will meet user needs:

"Do you allow people to comment, review, rate and ask questions on your website’s articles? If you do, you’ll be enjoying the fact that your own users are helping others know what information is valuable on your website. It’s also valuable feedback because it helps you improve the quality of your information. Over the last month, I’ve been working on a strategy for a client to help them introduce this sort of user-to-user and business-to-user interaction. My client though, has until recently, thought of their users in the same way they do their print magazine. This has meant that their market segmentation is broken down into 3 (non-mutually exclusive) roles:

1. those that use the website,
2. those who read the magazine, and
3. those who buy stuff.

Unfortunately, this is not enough granularity to make informed decisions on the functional requirements that are necessary to meet user’s needs. By using the taxonomy of social computing, the market segmentation, and user needs, become much clearer."

Kyle Gabhart argues that EA, SOA, BPM and so forth are all different labels on initiatives trying to address the same kinds of problems in enterprises, such as:

• "Business and IT need tighter alignment
• Visibility between business and IT should be increased
• Governance is needed at various levels of the organization to reduce risk
  and protect ROI
• Business processes and technology solutions should be more flexible and better able to adapt to changing demands
• Business processes and technology solutions should be designed intentionally and with sufficient rigor

The labels attached to these trends vary from enterprise to enterprise. Some drive toward one or more of these goals under the EA umbrella, others under the BPM label, and still others are talking about SOA. Some organizations use two or even all three labels. Regardless of the attached label, it is a strategic initiative at the business unit or enterprise level that aims to improve business predictability and squeeze more value out of technology investments."

Stewart Mader lists 7 strategies from the Society for Information Management's Advanced Practices Council for implementing a successful corporate wiki, the last one being the most important according to me:

"7. Understand wikis are best used in work cultures that encourage collaboration. Without an appropriate fit with the workplace culture, wiki technology will be of limited value in sharing knowledge, ideas and practices. (90-9-1 Theory)"