My company has used Wikis to facilitate the collaborative development of content with two of our clients, one a large Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and the other a worldwide quick service restaurant chain (QSR).
Our first Wiki experience was to create the detailed content for the REIT’s knowledge base on tenant improvement (or how to manage the construction effort involved in customizing a tenant’s office space). For this project, we had a pre-existing team that we’d worked with before to develop their methodology/approach for how to approach tenant improvement. To capture their collective knowledge and put it on their Intranet for access by Property Managers who did not specialize in construction management, the Wiki worked very well. Using MediaWiki, we set up the structure of the Wiki to mirror the different phases of their tenant improvement process. For each phase, we added the different tasks and deliverables, entered the content that existed, and identified what content was needed. To kick off the effort, we facilitated a web conference to introduce the Wiki to the team, discuss process, and assign responsibilities. For responsibilities, those who would develop the content and those who would review were assigned to each phase of the tenant improvement process. That way, each team member did not have to develop and/or review every section, but every section was developed and/or reviewed by 6 of the 12 team members. A home page was set up on the Wiki that captured these assignments, as well as a visual depiction of each phase’s status using a red/yellow/green stop light analogy. In addition, I was responsible for monitoring the Wiki and providing process and writing assistance; the project sponsor was responsible for final review and sign-off of the content. Overall, the process worked extremely well and we were able to develop the content in just 5 weeks.
We applied a similar process to creating updated drive-thru manuals for a QSR, but did not experience as much success. It worked well in the early stages, even for those team members who were somewhat technology adverse. After the initial draft of the content was generated, however, the project began to experience difficulties. The content/procedures were not stable, and the client had unrealistic expectations of the effort required to implement late changes. In that aspect, the technology hurt us because the perception was “it’s just electronic.” Additionally, it became apparent that this organization had a deeply-ingrained preference for paper-based copies of deliverables. The plan was to use the Wiki for the first two rounds of revisions to develop the final content; then the last two versions would be paper-based and focus strictly on formatting. Unfortunately, the manuals were not “real enough” for them until we got to the paper-based versions; thus significant content changes from the client didn’t surface until we were to the 3rd version, resulting in significant time and costs overruns. This was an important example of how important culture is when implementing technology. And no matter how excited or interested a client is in using new technology, always tread cautiously and take small steps first.
References:
Wikimedia. (n.d.). Welcome to MediaWiki.org. In MediaWiki. Retrieved April 4, 2008 from http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki
- Robin
Copyright Robin Donnan 2008. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.perfassocinc.com
