 I might get started. I am from government so you know be nice to me if you can So basically look to build a to build a good website we need good content Although as we've found some in some cases. How about any content because our content seems to be never delivered on time? Late content is certainly something that my web team is faced and I really doubt that we're alone So what can we do about it? How can we improve the odds in our favor? Through necessity, we recently had to find a way to make the content development process better much better At its core, this is a story about how we've tricked ourselves into thinking that email is the answer to everything And how using the right tool can save money and deliver better content and most importantly keep the web team sane So the APVMA don't quote for the pesticides and veterinary medicines authority We've faced some big changes in in recent times in the middle of last year new legislation commenced that Fundamentally changed how we conduct our chemical registration business And so fundamental changes that's web team code for a shit ton of content development So basically all of our content needed to be touched in some way a lot was written from scratch But there was a lot more that needed to be reviewed and redeveloped We had this additional complexity is that of where we were we were redeveloping our website at the same time So new content new website was all gonna happen at once and for us. We were coming out of the Stone Age We'd been managing our website with Dreamweaver This is a site without the hat over I mean it was somewhere like 12,000 files or something like that So it was a bit of a nightmare and so we're pulling ourselves into the new and exciting world of having a content management system And luckily for me that was Drupal. I got to Drupal by Walking to the executive and saying the the first recommendation from this consultant. It's it's off the shelf and it's giving $100,000 Can I use Drupal and they said yes? So that was really good for us But there was a further challenge then undermined underlined everything that we did on this project and Effectively that was an inner general sense content management at the APVMA was very immature Content didn't have a business owner let alone a review date. So it was effectively unmanaged So for that reason it was always going to be a challenging project Now I'm getting ahead of myself ahead of myself a little bit. What's wrong with email anyway? Now everyone complains about email Although that's what I thought before I joined the public sector In government, we just don't seem to get exposed to the tools that are being used outside in the wider world And I suspect tools that are familiar to most of you So tools like Slack, HitChat, Basecamp, Google Docs, whatever it is In government we we don't get to use any of those tools mostly because they're cloud-based So those tools are all designed to help with like doing you know and solving a specific problem But because we can't use them in government, perhaps that's why we just generally accept that email is the default way to do things Email is available. There is no resistance. You can start using it right now I suspect some of you are sitting on your email right now Or is anyone is anyone sitting on Slack right now because I'd be really jealous if you were if only if only So I mean look there's plenty of information probably everyone in this room has it has a sense for what's wrong with email So I'm trying to climb any further up the soapbox But effectively for the purpose of what I'm talking about today We need to remember a few things you know email is a communication tool from one person to another It has no context of what's happened before it There's no workflow built in and there's no single source of truth Everyone involved has the same copy So the first case study I want to talk to you about in late 2013 The APVMA was knee-deep in developing about 400,000 words of content This was the brand new content for the new site and it was a small team within the organization That was writing the whole lot now that team was also responsible for the multi-step workflow To get that content from from the point of drafting all the way out to publishing where they'd hand it over to my team to put up on the new site Now while writing the content took a while and that was a big job everything else took a lot longer So the workflow had a number of steps It started with obviously that team drafting it But then they had to put it out for consultation with the business area this sort of the subject matter experts We then went out to an external editor outside the building professional editing It came back for a legal review an executive director review and then finally it came through to us So the whole process was handled manually thanks for a combination of spreadsheets and email Now with all the back-and-forth This took quite a while There are a lot of moving parts mostly because that process isn't always linear You know you they would draft something that sends off the business area the business area tell them wrong They have to redraft it Sometimes you can get all the way through to the process and legal says no our advice was misinterpreted and go back to the drawing board So the process it could move back and forth through that process quite a bit Now to give you some idea of the volume. This is what their project tracking spreadsheet look like It goes on for another 600 rows To get an even better sense zoomed out. That's how many distinct items Of content the team was dealing with and so for each one of those items there were the multiple steps of the workflow So there were over 5,000 cells or steps of the workflow for them to go through Now as I said, it sort of had to go back and forth through that process. So As they're piecing together different bits of information from different emails and different word documents that were attached I guess you kind of get a sense for the huge amount of mental energy that went into work flowing those 400,000 words Added guess, you know best case each one of those cells needs two emails and email to the business area email back for example, but My guess is that none of them were that simple Some would could have taken 10. I'm just gonna guess that it was 10 and say that was you know 50,000 emails So it was a big job Now on top of that The executive wanted to get a daily summary of how this project was going and for the executive that's not really useful They can't get a summary of sort of what's happening With the project so they they asked they asked for something that could be sort of interpreted at glance And basically they requested a dashboard So this was another manual step on our on our internet. This was published every day Someone had to manually go through that spreadsheet Update where things are up to send it to us. We would manually update this this page on our internet Thing is though as it turned out the executive was quite right to keep an eye To keep a close eye on progress of this project because the content it wasn't ready by deadline. It was not even close In the end the final bit of content reached the web team six weeks late Launching the new website was time critical for the agency. This was based around legislation It was going to start whether we were ready or not So the web team had to work hard and we managed to we managed to catch it up a bit We launched the site just one week late. So while the web team had effectively caught up five weeks There is a cost for that and the cost is that as we rushed to get the content in we weren't polishing and validating our ideas on the site So the content was all there and in a basic sense. We'd met the requirement But the user experience just wasn't up to standard So we hadn't really seen the content as it was coming through we had a bit of a sense for what was coming But we hadn't seen all of it and so we built the site based on our best guess of what was going to be there By the time the content had arrived six weeks late It was too late for us to change course, you know, it's really the point of no report turn at that point And we couldn't really do any differently So it was a timely reminder for us that late content has flow and effects for a website build While everyone else in the content development process thinks that websites just magically happened We know that we're the ones at the end of the process with the bits of the jigsaw and we have to put it together So we really felt that they had to be a better way And that was a good lesson for when we moved on to this next case study Because with that first website out of the way those first 400,000 words We immediately moved on to redeveloping the rest of the site now as I mentioned before Content management was pretty immature at the APVMA. So we had to do a content audit and that revealed our doomsday scenario We had 2.9 million words that needed review not a single one of them had a business owner assigned Worse this time the web team is responsible So all the first time there was a team of four people that was drafting and work flowing that content this time was up to us It had a similar workflow to those first 400,000 words But in the web team, we only had one person available to do this She's incredibly capable, but Kylie is just one person All of this had to happen in just two months So we couldn't really afford any efficiency and if we had to send you know a million emails it would have sunk us and I don't think I would have survived to be honest But we were in luck Because during the development of that first website the content team had approached us with a problem They were having trouble getting buy-in from the business areas So they were they were they were attaching their content to an email sending it out as a word as a word document But the business area they were getting this resistance the business area couldn't picture it as a website They couldn't picture this word document as a page on a website So though that content team came to us and asked, you know, can you help us with this problem? And so we agreed We decided to build an internal prototype website on a very tight time frame We made it clear that it wouldn't look like the final website But in my mind that was a sensible as a sort of deliberate choice because we wanted them to focus on the content Not tell us what color the website should be But the theory was that having this prototype site would allow the business areas to review the content in a web context There'd be links and so on For us there was the added benefit of getting the content earlier. We'd see it from the early stages of drafting Just because it'd be coming together in this website rather than separate emails all over the place So we did pretty well we had the prototype up and running within a few days Now I'm sure that looks familiar to most of you the default theme was suitable for our needs As I said, it didn't need to look like our site. And so it met that that requirement It allowed content to go in as it was available And the user could sort of browse up and down the hierarchy and click links as they became available But we were sort of we thought we've done this pretty quickly. We're in a role We can add a bit of value here So we saw an opportunity to add some workflow and reporting tools around each bit of content I mean, we're building this thing anyway, so it wasn't too much of a stretch So basically what we did is we just replicated the steps from this spreadsheet and created a real-time dashboard The executive was pretty keen on this. They're like that's not even going to be updated ever, you know That'll be real-time. We can check that whenever But unfortunately in the end the team writing the content they decided not to use the tool and this is for reasons that I both understand And reasons that make me die a little on the inside But anyway, here we were a number of months later with this 2.9 million figure hanging over our heads So we resurrected the prototype we made some minor tweaks and we used it for the entire content development workflow And look to overall I get I got to say it was magic Using this tool Kylie managed to defeat that doomsday scenario in just two months And why did it work so well? I guess really like it's pretty obvious at its core. It was it operated outside of email Effectively all the dashboard is showing us is up the top there It's the status showing the the steps in that workflow and on the left-hand side is the number of items that are at that stage Further down. We also have an overdue section where The as soon as something has Missed its date that pops into overdue and it makes it very obvious who's accountable because there is somewhat assigned to each one This is one item of content from the tool So everything to do with this content this bit of content from the start of the process to the very end of that workflow He stored on this node. We kept it very simple. So the content itself is up the top We captured the metadata above that as well. So we were capturing things like the redirects It was just going to make it easier once we had to put it into our actual site having that stuff there available made it so much easier and having sort of its information all over the place we also used the comments down the bottom to For all discussion about this bit of content and we had the tracking information on the side So effectively the stuff that has a not sure if it's visible there But the gray background was stuff that wasn't migrated that was just for the purposes of developing the content But everything in the white body area Was something that was going across the new site So the comments were used throughout for discussion and content development. So every step from from Asking the business owner to check the content through to changes that might come through Down to a very important person authorizing the content at the bottom Was in that one place So we sent automatic email notifications when the status changed They were deliberately brief of course so that we'd force people to actually go across to the tool to take take their action See what was going on As things move through this workflow the real-time nature of the dashboard really paid off The progress was always clear and it was always accurate I like that manual dashboard on our first site Both the summary and in-depth view were sort of there at the same time It meant the CEO could jump in there and see where the bottleneck was and that really helped us to keep things moving Every single bit of content had a clear audit trail Mostly because all of that discussion and decision-making was in the comments on that node attached to that bit of content And so that increased accountability has sort of already improved our content our management of content One example I can give you is with that first so with the first 400,000 words a couple of a couple of weeks after it Launched someone from legal came around and said like this is wrong on the site. Can you can you check this? I'm like, okay. I'll check it. I went back through this whole process took me about 40 minutes But I checked the approved content that had been given to us I went through it line by line Every single word was the same and I thought that's a QA tick. We've done what we've been asked to do What I piece together going back through that team's spreadsheet and the emails and I found out later Is that legal had provided advice somewhere in the middle of the process that had somehow got lost or someone ignored it one of the Other but what we got at the end was just approved content. We didn't see any of that history So that that's 40 minutes my time to figure that out Whereas with this model that legal advice is in the middle of the thread. It's attached to the thing That's going on. It's really obvious. So it doesn't take long to sort of check those issues We've actually referred back to this tool a number of times since launch the the classic one Certainly in the first week or two after launching the site was someone walking around and saying like why isn't my content on the new site? And we go in there would bring it up and say right here. You told us to delete it That's why it's not there So people struggle with change and our our agency was already pretty changed fatigued We're a science-based agency as well. So there are varying levels of technical familiarity so Staff didn't really have the mental energy to invest in learning a new thing With so much change going on. So I guess how did we get staff to to use this system? Well, the first thing was tough shit if you want your content on new site This is the process we're using the second thing though a bit more friendly was our engagement. So Whenever someone's having trouble with this tool Kylie she would get up walk down to their office sit down next to them and just help them put it in there And so while that took a bit of time. It was less time than spending sending to me By and large, I'd say it went pretty smoothly We even have one of our executive directors call one day and he asked me why is it asking me to wait 3,000 seconds? I did a bit of research and found out that he'd been approving so many of his items so quickly that it triggered the Is it honeypot the span protections? So I said no worries Tony, I'll just increase that So now that we've experienced the benefits of using a tool like this And I guess we've demonstrated a clear business case for doing so I think going back to using email for content development Would be like poking myself in the eye with a fork and probably rusty and blunt We're a service delivery team for our agency. So a lot of what we do is routine it has a lot of our publishing has common steps pretty common workflow and So we're now working and moving all of our business as usual service delivery to a similar type of model We'll be more efficient and we think we'll also be more sane So I feel like it all went pretty well and we pulled off the improbable We'd overcome the challenge of the original content being six weeks late We'd improve the user experience because the first thing we pushed out was quite lacking But best of all we've defeated that doomsday scenario those 2.9 million words were sorted in just two months The site launched on time Of course, there were a few rough edges Nearly a year later. We're still iterating and making some improvements, but I guess the website's never finished So I feel okay about that The launch overall was smooth. So we felt like it was mission accomplished Best of all the APVMA was in a place that it hadn't been for a long time Where content wasn't previously managed at all We can now reassure feel reassured that every word of content on our site was current and in theory accurate Because every single word had been through a review and approval process But how long would that last? The major content development project had gone well But we hadn't really addressed the underlying issues that would help mature content management for the longer term This weird thing occasionally happens to us and at least in our web team love to hear it was elsewhere But apparently we're experts in everything Not long after launch a senior member of staff came into our office with a question about a bit of content was on the site He wanted to know of a specific Scientific requirement was correct I don't know. I'm just the web manager, but I did offer to go off and check who the business owner was and See if we could ask them. I went back to my desk I only discovered that this senior member of staff had written the very content in question It turns out that business owners are quick to forget that they are the business owners So we really need to do a better job of Equipping business owners with the tools they need to manage their content We've looked for ways to improve content management over the full life cycle Governance is definitely an issue We've developed a policy that sets out expectations of a business owner But also everyone else involved in the process and that includes us at the publishing end There's a bit of carrot in there, but if I'm being honest, it's mostly stick The CEO now gets a list of content that has exceeded its review date on a regular basis It's a pretty good motivator to do your job Because you don't land on a desk But the policy the policy isn't much use without tools to accompany it We're a small web team. So we rely on external suppliers for our Drupal development So while considering how can we help how can we use Drupal to help us solve this problem? I'm always looking for simple low-tech solutions where I can So what we've started to do is display some different things. This is what we display on our front end So we're basically displaying the content last updated date the last reviewed date and The URL just as a bit of extra in case it's printed out It's quite it's quite important to have both of these things from our stakeholders perspective. So last updated is great But in with chemical regulation, it's also quite important to tell someone it's been reviewed recently So it may have been updated five years ago But someone that's investing a lot of money in registering a chemical product It's good for them to know that someone checked it just yesterday and it's still accurate and can be relied on The added benefit though the nice added benefit is this is putting pressure on our business owners It's telling them that their review matters we're going to tell stakeholders that they've checked it and It's up to date. So it's a little bit extra for our our business owners as well This is just an alternate display of the same thing. The only thing that's added here is a version history So we don't add this to every page It doesn't really make sense on like a contact page or something like that So we don't need to show, you know, that a phone number used to be X and now it's Y But there are some bits of content on our site. There are these quite lengthy scientific guidelines and On the old site, they used to be trapped inside PDFs as these big publications and now we've we've managed to get them to HTML But it is quite valuable for our stakeholders to see a version history on those mostly because It's the change could be something quite minor in the middle seemingly minor in the middle But it's you know, it's one letter difference in a scientific formula or something and it costs them a hundred thousand dollars So that's why with those without a diversion history as well This is how that data looks in the back end and it's dead simple as I said as a small team was just looking for simple ways They're effectively just fields on the content type. We're updating all of those manually I'm hoping someone will pop up with an amazing way to do this automatically later But the problem that I was considering was that not every action on a node Should change these values if we're just removing a full stop or correctings a Broken link or something that's not an up. That's not updating the page as far as our stakeholders concerned So at this stage, we're just updating all of those fields manually as we go This here is just a view that we've created to help us manage This review process Again, it's pretty simple. There are no automatic emails that are going out to business owners at this stage My team is just coordinating this what we are doing is we're using this view to find what is due for review And then we advise the advise the business owner that it is due it's just You know, obviously there are some filtering tools there and We're just able to sort it and see what's due and it's pretty easy for us at a glance to see Where things are up to So what if we learn from our journey? Well, I think for me, that's just the way it is is a terrible reason to do something Just because email is there just because the outlook is open all day and staring us in the face Just because it's comfortable and familiar Doesn't mean that email is the answer to everything Thank you for listening to my rant We did it manually. So what we did So you can see right down the bottom We did do it manually we initially we're looking at is the migrate module I think we sort of had that sort of deployed, but it was all a bit complex For what we needed to do and effectively all this was was overworked up to that point. So The content that was in this this this tool wasn't necessarily didn't necessarily have clean markup You know could have gone in with the whizzy wig and being bastardized the whole way through So in my view at the end of the process someone in the web team was always going to be touching it to clean it up And we thought at that stage if we're doing that, we'll just we'll just migrate it manually. It just kept it much simpler No, we've We're getting closer to that on our internal property or just for the internet, but for our public website. No, we just We get enough word documents that are in bad shape to let people get out there and start hacking away at Web pages. It's just it's just not realistic, especially in government with our accessibility requirements So really we have a centralized web team for publishing for mostly that reason just a quality control We're supposed to be double a So this this tool we did develop it, but I mean it's it's pretty simple It's effectively a Drupal site with some views like that's about all it is I think the rules module was used to do the notifications Yeah, I think But it's very simple it's a it's a single content type with some fields on it and then views that surface that I guess the the follow-up question be like, you know, we could have done this with any number of tools We're going to use red mine or or something like that. It's effectively just an issue tracker Just a little bit more customized for us. The reason I did this is because I had the infrastructure available for Drupal So it takes a lot of energy and time for IT to provision other infrastructure for us So because I had infrastructure to do Drupal sites, we had a Drupal developer. We just did it They're pretty happy to just send us whatever they've got on paper and hope it works out. Okay No, I think we have we actually have the opposite problem we need to we need to push back more and Part of our governance is that we'll only be accepting content that meets a certain standard So they've got it's gonna meet our language guide our style guide and all that stuff before it reaches us I don't think certainly on our intranet internally people do want to be able to go and post their own news items and that sort of stuff But we haven't had any resistance to to the web I guess on the public side on the public side you do do have arguments with people about where their content is placed But for the most part hasn't been too bad they they sort of trust that you know We're there, you know, we're the subject matter experts on an internet internet architect And so they let that fly with the other day. I'll push back on putting a new button on the home page That's the common one, but generally it's pretty good question I think so our agency has gone through a lot of change and for me the biggest measure initially was how many Complaints we got on day one and luckily it was pretty quiet I think for our stakeholders the issue is They were being hit with a new system So they're the regulatory environment was changing and they were getting a new website as well So we were definitely worried about interpace shop, but on on day one to only be sort of cleaning up minor things We thought that was pretty good We have what we call a super user group available. So these are some some people from our industry That we've put in a room a couple of times to do a bit of validation with That's been the main mechanism by which we keep on it I mean I keep an eye on the stats of course Google and it's and so on but I'd say that the biggest validation We've had is this super user group, which is about 25 and 10 people from the industry I've been a little bit lucky on the website because most of the problems that that the That our stakeholders facing are actually with the other half of our website, which is developed by an IT team So I've escaped fairly fairly well through this process I guess so we have had some usability issues as I said when we first put up the Very first 400,000 words that that at that time there was a site for consultation And so the feedback that we got through the consultations. We got slammed and it was completely valid We could see that straight away. So that was a really bad deployment And so we then just staged it so that by the time the site moved out of consultation that became official business You know, we we've got it to a point. We thought we were pretty comfortable with those super users We put it out there and a couple of months after it launched We went back to the super users with our next round of iterations and tested that so I'm hoping it will I'd say it hasn't yet So we're to the point where we've got this new policy sort of set out, but the the tools The tools that we provide to help them give us good content aren't quite there yet So it's still it's still a lot of effort for them to go off and read a big style guide Simple stuff like Leave track changes on when you're giving us Edits, please that sort of stuff. It's still not consistent and by switching to a hopefully tool like this With a web form on the front We'll help help that so we'll sort of force it to come in via funnel, but we've got a long way to go Thanks, everyone