[Sigia-l] re: elements of IA practice found useful/not useful

[Morag Johnston]

I'm responding to PeterV's message from this morning regarding what elements
of IA practice people have found useful and not useful.

It's a question I've been thinking about recently as our clients question
the amount they are asked to pay for the planning/design stage of projects.
Our firm focuses primarily on the development and deployment of web
applications for the wealth management industry, so by the time clients come
to us, they think they already have the project planned out. We're working
on ways to minimize the planning effort, while still supporting the client
relationship and getting the job done right.

I'm approaching the question as an IA exercise in itself - who are the
stakeholders of the IA process and its deliverables? And the analysis goes
on from there.

My perspective is that good IA, both its practice and its deliverables,
mitigates risk. Good IA helps ensure that: 
- the client understands what we're delivering to them so we prevent
misunderstandings.
- the site delivers the right user experience so the project successful.
- the project manager sets a realistic budget for the build so we don't lose
our shirts.
- the creative team and programmers understand in detail what it is they
have to build so we prevent cost and time overruns.
- quality assurance is clear on the project so that they can write accurate
test plans, again preventing cost and time overruns.

If your IA process and deliverables reduce the risk to a comfortable level,
then you have done enough.

So far, we've determined that it is the client type and project size that
are the biggest determinants of appropriate IA elements for a particular
project. The newer and "greener" the client, the more we need to do; the
bigger and more complex the project, the more we have to do.

That's my two cents.

- Morag

____________________________
Morag Johnston
Senior Information Architect

COMMUNICOPIA INC.
T. 416 364 8998 x 2389
F. 416 364 9583

www.communicopia.com