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1©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
Enterprise Information Architecture Methodology
Louis Rosenfeld
IA Summit 2005
March 6, 2005
2©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
What’s an Enterprise?
Large, distributed organization made up of multiple business units
Operates multiple businesses (e.g., HR and marketing, hardware and software)
Permanent state of war between centralized and local management over who’s in charge of what
3©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
The Enterprise Challenge:Cutting across departmental silos
4©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
Example: filing an expense report
5©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
Information Architects and the Enterprise
What’s bad for managers and users…
…is wonderful for information architects--lots of new opportunities
Prediction: one of two major growth venues for IA (with global IA)
6©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
Information Architecture and the Enterprise
What’s good for IAs…
…is a problem for the field; we’re under-prepared to work in enterprise settings• IA Design: needs to become less agnostic,
more proscriptive• IA Skill set: little training for organizational
design and navigating politics• IA Methodology: Traditional canon of IA
methods not designed for large, distributed, highly political environments
7©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
Traditional IA Methods can be Problematic in Enterprise SettingsScale: volume of users, content, and
complexity of business context causes headaches
Distribution: hard to do card sorts with a sample distributed in six sales regions
Sampling: political divisions can have an unholy impact on sampling
Timing: neat (re)design cycle not typical in enterprises
8©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
Rethinking IA Methods for Enterprise Use 1/2
Repurpose and reexamine existing methods:Using existing methods (e.g., card sorting,
free listing) in combination with digital tools (e.g., WebSort, SurveyMonkey) for broader distribution, greater number of responses
Greater reliance on log analysis
Content Inventory
9©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
Rethinking IA Methods for Enterprise Use 2/2Invent new methods:
2-D User SamplingValue Tier Approach
Mine other fields for appropriate methods, such as:• Zachman IA• Knowledge Management• Organizational Behavior• Social Network Analysis• Others?
10©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
Content Inventory: Enterprise challengesDifficult to achieve representative
samples in the face of these difficulties:• Awareness: What’s out there?• Volume: How much is there? Can we
cover it all?• Costs: Can we afford to investigate at this
order of magnitude?• Politics: Which content owners will work
with us? And who will try to get in the way?
11©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
Content Inventory:Enterprise work-aroundsGreater reliance on automated tools• Search log analysis: can provide sense of popular
content; but difficult to find, acquire, and merge multiple logs
• Spider can uncover unlinked content
Manual efforts• Examine directories• Poll content owners• Look for content areas that answer users’ common
information needs • Perform inventory from your own memory (identifies
major content areas)• Account for “squeaky wheel” content owners
12©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
Content Inventory Reconsidered:Embracing uncertainty
No method--or collection of methods--promises comprehensive snapshot
Instead, treat content inventory as an ongoing process--the “Rolling Content Revue”• Repeat frequently, rather than a one-shot
deliverable• Acknowledge reactive nature--content will come to
you
Let content--through its users and owners establish--its own importance
13©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
Content Migration Strategy:Value Tier ApproachDetermine value tiers of content quality that
make sense given your users/content/context• Answer “what content is important to the
enterprise?”• Help determine what to add, maintain, delete
How to do it?1.Prioritize and weight quality criteria2.Rate content areas3.Cluster into tiers4.Score content areas while performing content
analysis
14©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
Value Tier Approach:Potential quality criteria
Select appropriate criteria for your business context, users, and content• Authority• Strategic value • Currency• Freshness• Usability• Popularity/usage• Feasibility• Presence of quality existing metadata
15©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
Value Tier Approach:Weighting and scoring
16©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
Value Tier Approach:Prioritization
17©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
Dealing with Sampling Politics:2D User SamplingCombines alternative, apolitical methods
for determining segments to sample, e.g.:• Role-based segmentation• Demographic segmentation
Distracts stakeholders from “org chart-itis,” to purify sampling
Enables evaluation methods (e.g., task analysis, card sorting)
18©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
2D User Sampling: Role-based segmentation
Roles cut across political boundaries• Profile core enterprise-wide business
functions• Why does the enterprise exist?• Examples: Sell products, B2B or B2C
activities, manufacture products, inform opinion, etc.
• Determine major “actors” in each process
19©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
2D User Sampling: Demographic segmentationStandard, familiar measure; also cuts
across political boundaries• Gender• Geography• Age• Income level• Education level
Your marketing department probably has this data already
20©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
2D User Sampling:Combining roles & demographics
TEST
SAMPLE
SIZE
Demo. Profile
A
Demo. Profile
B
Demo. Profile
C
Demo. Profile
DTOTAL
Role 1 1 3 3 2 9
Role 2 2 2 1 1 6
Role 3 3 4 2 1 10
Role 4 0 3 4 0 7
TOTAL 6 12 10 4 32
21©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
2D User Sampling:Incorporating contextual bias
Role/demographic “scorecard” is pure• Serves as a structure that doesn’t have to
change substantially• But how to incorporate stakeholder bias?
Stakeholder bias can be accommodated• Poll/interview stakeholders to determine
how cell values should change• Axes and totals stay mostly the same• Distraction is our friend
22©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
2D User Sampling:After stakeholder input
TEST
SAMPLE
SIZE
Demo. Profile
A
Demo. Profile
B
Demo. Profile
C
Demo. Profile
DTOTAL
Role 1 1 2 5 1 9
Role 2 1 1 3 1 6
Role 3 3 4 2 1 10
Role 4 0 3 3 1 7
TOTAL 5 10 13 4 32
23©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
Summary
Science takes a beating from politics and pragmatism
These methods are straw men: not ideal, but represent a step forward
Shortcomings in IA methods for enterprise use suggest a major new genre of IA, and an area that requires significant effort on part of the IA community
24©2005 Louis Rosenfeld LLC. All rights reserved.
Contact Information
Louis Rosenfeld LLC902 Miller AvenueAnn Arbor, Michigan 48103 USA
+1.734.663.3323 voice+1.734.661.1655 fax