We, and many other consultants, have often advised businesses not to make content management strategy or purchasing decisions based solely on technology appeal. Yet this is still perhaps the biggest mistake companies make and is certainly one of the main reasons some CMS deployments fail. Because content technology needs to work with, and in fact be part of, IT infrastructures, it is critical that business units and IT work closely together to develop a content management technology strategy. However, the best technology will not get you very far if the content it has to work with is not well-understood and organized at best you wont achieve the ROI and benefits hoped for, and at worst, the deployment may be seen as a failure. Reviewing what your content is and how it is used not only helps you understand what a CMS should do for you, but can also provide insight into businesses processes that have become dysfunctional, as most do over time.

This month we publish an excerpt from Ann Rockleys recent book, Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy (New Riders Publishing, 2002). We found Anns explanation of the process of a content audit particularly clear and compelling, and thought it should be shared with our audience of IT and business managers. Ann will also be speaking on this topic at the Gilbane Conference on Content management in San Francisco this September another reason to join us there! (See the updated program on page 24.)

Performing a Content Audit

At the heart of a unified content strategy is content. Before you can model your contentand, subsequently, unify ityou need to gain an intimate understanding of its nature and structure. During a content audit, you look at your organizations content analytically and critically, so that you can identify opportunities for reuse and the type of reuse. You look for similar and identical information, as well as for information that could be similar or identical, but is currently distinct. After you see how your information is being used and reused, you can make decisions about how you might unify it.

This article is taken from my book Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy^[1], and describes what a content audit is and how to perform one; it also provides an example of content audit findings.

What is a content audit?

A content audit, like the name implies, is an accounting of the information in your organization. However, unlike the usual associations with the word auditassociations that strike fear into the hearts of many taxpayersa content audit has positive results that enable your organization to save money if your findings are implemented. The purpose of a content audit is to analyze how content is used, reused, and delivered to its various audiences. You need to understand how informationas well as the processes to create itcan be unified, eliminating the cut and paste method many authors employ in their attempt to unify content wherever possible.

In most traditional authoring environments, if authors want to reuse information they must:

• Look at other content in the organization to determine which information they want to reuse.
• Find the information in another document or section, or even on another server in another area of the company.
• Cut and paste the information from one section of the document to another section or from one document to another document.
• Rewrite or reformat the reused information to fit the new context.

An attempt to unify content in this manner results in multiple (potentially inconsistent) instances of the same piece of information in the document or across documents. These instances are not linked or referenced to one another physically within the authoring or publishing tool. If the information needs to be updated, authors must first locate all instances of reuse, and then update each instance separately. This can be an extremely time-consuming process, and introduces much opportunity for error and inconsistency. The content audit is intended to illustrate where there are opportunities to unify content throughout your organization; it provides the basis for your reuse strategy and modeling decisions.

Whats involved in doing a content audit?

To get started on a content audit within your organization, you need to first identify your scope, then select representative materials within that scope. The larger the scope, the more work is involved, but the greater the return on investment.

Identifying scope of the audit

You dont have to start big; doing a content audit within one area of an organization can realize significant returns and show members of the organization in other areas how, by including their content, the organization can realize even greater returns. A technical publications group often starts an audit by looking at the content they produce to streamline their procedures and help themselves meet deadlines. During the audit, they realize that the product descriptions in the manuals are similar to the product descriptions the marketing department includes in both their printed brochures and on the external web site. As a result, the two groups get together to decide how to unify the product descriptions so both groups can use them consistently. Although the scope of your audit determines your unified content strategy, even if you start small, you can expand your decisions later on. Be aware, however, that starting small can lead you to make technology choices that may not meet your future needs. If you do start small, select tools that can expand to meet your future needs.

Selecting representative materials

Once youve determined the scope of the audit, you need to select representative materials. Select as much content as you can, representing all the different departments included in your scope, not just the content that you create. For example, you could look at samples in the following categories: collateral (including brochures, web site, product packaging, point-of-sale materials, and newsletters), press releases, technical specifications, internal support staff materials (often published on the company intranet), user manuals, quick reference cards, as well as any learning materials associated with the product.

When youre selecting materials, remember that the content audit is a comparative exercise, which means you need to compare like information. Select all the content (for example, the brochure, web site content, user guide, online help, training materials) produced for a single product or service, as well as the content produced for other similar products/services. So, you could select all the content produced for a television and compare it to see how content is used or reused. Is the product description consistent in the brochure, the user guide, and on the web site? Then, you would examine the content for other similar products, such as VCRs, DVD players, or different makes of televisions, looking for similarities and differences. Is the warranty information the same for all products? What about definitions? How similar are troubleshooting procedures for the different television sets?

Analyzing the content

Once you have gathered together a representative sample of materials, youre ready to start digging into it. This is the fun part and usually involves spreading large amounts of information all over your office, walking around with a highlighter and a stack of sticky notes, highlighting your findings, and taking notes as you go. Its fun because it doesnt involve doing anything beyond really examining your content closely to see what it contains and how its put together. Analyzing materials in this way is a discovery process about your content, something most organizations dont have the opportunity to do in their day-to-day work. Youre not making any decisions at this point; instead, youre seeing what you have and making observations about it.

Analyzing content occurs at two levels: at the top level of your representative samples, followed by a more detailed examination of the content.

Top-level analysis

A top-level analysis involves scanning various information products to find common pieces of information (for example, product descriptions, introductory information, procedures, disclaimers, topics, headings within documents, etc.). If you have large documents that include tables of contents, you can compare the tables of contents to find similarities in chapter or section names. Such similarities in labels and headings often indicate similar or identical content within and across a documentation set. Start by spreading your information products out in front of you (or opening them all up on your computer desktop) and highlighting areas that look like they might contain similar information. When youre finished, compile your results into a table. It should look something like the example shown in Table 1 below. Your table should list content category and the information product where it appears. Use an X to indicate that content appears in an information product. Leave the table cell empty if an information product does not appear to contain that particular content. (Note that the table usually does not represent the entire scope of the content, but only representative portions where reuse is clearly identified.)

In-depth analysis

During the in-depth analysis, you examine the repeated information you identified during the top-level analysis. Repeated information can be as simple as copyright notices and warranty information, and as complex as whole sections of detail, particularly for product suites. Once youve found instances of repeated information to scrutinize more closely, you can lay them out in a tabular format to see them all together, at a glance. (See the examples that follow.) As you look at instances of repeated information, identify whether the content is identical or similar. If it is similar (or almost identical), which parts differ? Do the parts that differ need to differ? Are there valid reasons for differences such as product or information uniqueness? If the parts differ and there is no valid reason for the difference, identify this content as something that should be standardized for reuse in the future.

Content audit example

The following example shows content audit findings for a medical devices company that produces blood glucose monitoring meters. Because there are several versions of the meters, the company suspects there may be similarities or inconsistencies in the information products produced for each version. The example includes a top-level analysis showing potential content reuse, as well as a small in-depth analysis showing how the company could select a portion of the content for further analysis and interpret the findings.

Top-level analysis

Table 1. represents the top-level analysis of their materials.

Table 1. Comparing information products for blood glucose monitoring devices

Information product
Content	Owners guide	Quick reference card	Quick start guide	Press release	Web site	Brochure	Product package	Label (package insert)
Company logo	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Contact information	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Important (read the owners guide before)	X	X	X		X		X	X
Product description	X			X	X	X	X
Setting up the meter	X	X						X
Testing the meter	X							X
Sampling the blood	X		X					X
Inserting the test strip	X	X	X					X
Interpreting the results	X	X						X
Caring for your meter	X
Solving problems	X	X

Interpreting the findings

The top-level analysis shows areas that warrant closer examination. For example, the company logo and contact information are used in every information product and the product description is used in all but three. In addition, a number of topics related to the setup and use of the product are repeated throughout. This top-level analysis shows the findings for just one product: the blood glucose monitoring meter. Expanding the analysis to look at other products in the same family shows that up to 80% of the content could be reused. Looking even further to other related product lines, shows additional commonality in conceptual information about the company and its products.

In-Depth Analysis

The results of the top-level analysis are used to drive the in-depth analysis. In this case, the top-level analysis shows similar information in the setup and use of the product as shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Analyzing content further

Owners guide	Quick reference card	Quick start card
Step 1 Insert the test strip. Make sure the con­tact bars go in end first and facing up. The meter will turn on automatically. - - - appears briefly on the display. Note: The bars must be all the way into the meter to avoid an inaccurate result.	Step 1 Insert the test strip. After inserted, meter turns on automatically.	Step 1 Insert a test strip to turn on the meter.
Step 2 Apply the blood sample	Step 2 Apply the sample	Step 2 - - - appears on the screen.
		Step 3 Apply the blood sample

Interpreting the findings

There are subtle differences in the first two samples (Owners guide and Quick reference card), but the third sample (Quick start card) has a different second step. Are the differences necessary or will they confuse users? Quick reference Cards provide concise information so the shorter steps are appropriate. The same holds true for the Quick start guide; however, the second step isnt really a step. The differences in the steps should be reconsidered.

Conclusion

Although this example shows just a small portion of content, it illustrates the seemingly insignificant, yet critical, variations that can occur in content. In this case, the content would benefit from a unified strategy to ensure that each time the same information appears it is consistent. The core steps that apply to all information products would remain the same; if some steps require supplementary information (for example, information based on user analysis), it can be nested within the core. Regardless of how the core steps are supplemented, they remain consistent.

Building a reuse map

While you are analyzing your content, its a good idea to build a reuse map. A reuse map identifies which elements of your content are reusable, where they are reusable, and whether they should be reused identically or derivatively. The person responsible for setting up your content management system will use the map to set up the reuse logic. For now, the reuse map serves to keep track of potential reuse and it will be refined further when you create your information models. The map uses the symbols shown in Table 3 to indicate the types of reuse.

Table 3. Reuse symbols

Reuse	Symbol
Identical	I
Derivative	D
Source	S

For example, the reuse map for the medical devices example would look like the one shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Reuse map for blood glucose monitoring devices

Content	Owners guide	Quick reference card	Quick start	Press release guide	Web site	Brochure	Product package	Label (package insert)
Company logo	I	I	I	I	I	I	I
Contact information	I	I	I	I	I	I	I
Important (read the owners guide before)	I	I	I		I			I
Product description	D			D	I	S	D
Setting up the meter	S	D						D
Testing the meter	S							D
Sampling the blood	S		D					D
Inserting the test strip	S	D	D					D

Interpreting the results	S	D						D
Caring for your meter	S
Solving problems	S	D			D

Identifying opportunities for reuse

As shown in the previous examples, a content audit can help you determine how to reuse content across a number of different information products. Where content is different, does it have to be different? Can information that is similar be made identical? Are there reasons for it being similar as opposed to identical (product name, for example)? Should content in one media be identical to most of the content in another media (for example, on paper versus on the Web)? How will your information products be used and are there valid reasons to distinguish them from each other (for example, to accommodate differences in users and their needs)? These are the types of questions that you need to answer as you develop an intimate understanding of the content in your information products.

What comes after the audit?

Once youve done a thorough, critical analysis of your content and drawn up a reuse map, do the following:

• Summarize your findings in an analysis report, which contains your observations about the content and what you learned about your current content life cycle. You use the analysis report to confirm your findings with other members of your team (whos content you may have analyzed during the audit). You also present it to others in your organization whose support you will need to move ahead with your unified content strategy.
• Document your recommendations and your plan for a unified content strategy. Include information on the new content life cycle, because it will be supported by a unified content strategy. Again, present your report to others in your organization whose support or approval you will need as you move forward with a unified content strategy. For example, you may need to request additional fundsbeyond your established budgetfor some of the research and design.

Summary

Doing a thorough content audit is critical to implementing a reuse strategy because it tells you how content is currently being used, how it could be reused, and what needs to be done to create effective unified content.

• Establish the scope of the audit, remembering to look beyond one document set. Look at content across media and across content areas to see the potential for reuse.
• Select representative samples of your content, based on the scope of your project.
• Examine a documents TOCs and top-level structure for structural or heading similarities so you can determine where to look further.
• Look at selected samples closely, making observations about how information is used and how it could be reused. Decide whether differences are necessary, what information should be unique, and what information must be consistent.
• Draw up a reuse map that illustrates potential reuse of information elements, as well as the type of reuse.

Ann Rockley, rockley@rockley.com