Web Content Management

Chapter 12. The CMS Implementation

I have two teenage daughters. They’re obsessed with their future weddings. They’ve both planned out the perfect day dozens of times. When they ask why I don’t get nearly as excited about it as they do, I always respond the same way: “I’m less concerned with your wedding day than I am with the 50 years that come after it.”

In the process of building a content-managed website, organizations often get obsessed with finding the right CMS for their needs. They’re dazzled by sales demos and starry-eyed over the things they’ll do once it’s implemented. Emboldened by finding what they consider a flawless piece of technology, they rush into the implementation, then don’t understand why the reality of what they wake up with every day doesn’t live up to their dreams.

Identifying and acquiring a CMS is only the first part of building a content-managed website. It’s like spending hours and hours at the building materials store, identifying and purchasing everything you need to build a house, and having those things delivered to an empty lot. It doesn’t matter how many materials you have, or whether or not they are high quality—someone still has to build a house with them.¹

What plays more into the success or failure of a website: the quality of the CMS, or the quality of the implementation? This is a hotly debated question. Can a fantastic CMS be ruined by a terrible implementation? And can a stellar implementation salvage what is an objectively poor CMS? ...