Sent via email on 7/28/2021
Some months ago, our website team introduced a series of changes to bring http://cda.org to a steady state. We have some important updates to share as we move to the next operational phase. In summary:
We have spent our full website budget and have completed the bulk of what we set out to do
CDA.org is now accessible, secure, and compliant
We have reduced hosting costs and removed unnecessary instances and content
Content Publishing Responsibilities Going Forward
While it was beneficial in the short-term, we can no longer afford to contract developers (10# Gorilla) handling content updates. This is especially true considering the pandemic’s fiscal impact on CDA.
The website platforms team, wsplatform@cda.org will support the website platform and architecture going forward, while routine content updates will be performed via self-service by content owners/producers. Additionally, the Marketing team will be available for content and accessibility support.
The website team’s goal has always been to enable self-service publishing on http://cda.org website as much as possible. Before we could do that, the website needed software and platform upgrades. Those upgrades are now complete.
Self-Service publishing has multiple benefits:
Reduced bottlenecks
Faster time to production
Lower Costs
Training and Support
We expect anxiety with this change, but believe the following changes will make content publishing simpler and easier than ever before:
Facilitated multiple training sessions with professional facilitators that go over how to handle basic content updates. Recordings to these trainings are available for anyone who did not attend a previous session.
Created a documentation center with videos, how-to guides, and links to external resources for additional training needs.
Standardized page templates have been created for the most common types of content, removing the need for repeated redesign.
Improvements to architecture are in progress and will reduce the need for new pages/new development, as well as improve the user experience for our members.
Centralized change log for all content updates, and routine review from the website team, will ensure changes are tracked and inconsistencies are addressed.
Automated checks for broken links, accessibility problems and oversized images - the three principal areas of content trouble in the past
Resources mentioned above are available in the Website Support Center
Website Content Governance
To ensure our site remains accessible, and usable, it is worth mentioning that content published needs to follow best practices and website standards, specifically:
Accessibility: CDA cannot publish content that violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Failure to follow the documented publishing rules exposes CDA to lawsuits.
Usability: Other rules ensure our site operates well on mobile devices, is searchable and remains performant. We acknowledge the publishing rules to take some getting used to but expect them to become second nature over time.
The website team is always available for questions on any of the specific rules. Automated checks will help us find mistakes and we will continue update our documentation over time. We expect content writing and formatting rules will become second nature quickly.
Support Requests and New Work
Bugs and break-fixes: Please continue to use the existing website intake form for things that are broken.
Text updates/changes to existing pages: If you already have content editor access, please log all changes on the appropriate Change Log. All departments should have received a list of pages and an invitation to note the access/training they need earlier this week. If you did not, please let us know.
New work: If there are items that require new development, strategy support, or any other type of support from the website team, please add them to our website backlog list in Confluence. We will be setting time to prioritize work every two weeks and can invite you to the backlog grooming meeting.