Hi all. I am a BA working in an operational context and my work is currently focused on aligning process in IS operational teams to the needs of a fast-changing business where the IS development teams have embraced Agile. I have identified a requirement from the operational teams for a more efficient and user-friendly way of organizing the information they use. This includes architecture, process documents and local work instructions. The current situation is that there are several document repositories such as wikis, shared drives and Confluence (to name a few) and the teams sometimes even rely on the knowledge of particular individuals because they cannot access the information they need. In addition, there is no direct line of site between infrastructure and real-life services. Although the teams are each responsible for different parts of our infrastructure (Enterprise, Network etc), they need to work closely together and it would be beneficial to have access to documentation across the estate in a way that allows them to appreciate relationships between services and prioritize work based on business impact.
Has anybody ever been involved in analysis work to pull together an information architecture in this kind of context? How did you approach it? What were the challenges?
Hi. I know this post was some time ago, but hey ho! Since retiring last year I've been running my own project to find a better solution to the same problem, and I now have a pretty good minimum viable product to play with! It allows you to publish a network of user friendly web pages from pdfs created using any tool you prefer, and gives control over who sees what based on user id. Designated content owners can easily maintain a set of web pages for their/function/project/etc. Overview/status/contact details are here - www.viaba.co.uk. Brian
The scenario you describe is exactly the same as the one that I worked in last year. My last contract was as a quality manager on a large data migration programme with 7 different work-streams, several validated processes to define and follow, and several repositories storing everything. Using only Visio drawings saved as pdf and stored in SharePoint Online, I produced a network of maps on their network with hyperlinks to each other, for e.g. approved documentation, migration paths, migration processes, quality management, service instructions, standards, templates, teams, contacts, etc. The zooming and scrolling functionality wasn't very good, but I could see a lot of potential for the approach. After retiring I decided to find out if there was a way to do the same thing on the internet with better functionality around zooming/panning/etc. I've been working with a technical support friend of my daughter's and we've now ready to do some proof of concept testing in the real world.
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