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David Aaron

www.woofquackmoo.com

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Basic Overview of Contingency Planning
  3. Simple Example of a Contingency Plan
  4. Using the Contribute Permission System
  5. Creating a Contribute Template
Created:
3 January 2006
User Level:
Beginner
Products:
Contribute

Implementing Contingency Plans with Contribute and the Contribute Publishing Server

When you are planning, developing, deploying, or maintaining a website, you have to keep a range of issues in mind: branding, consistent navigation, accessibility, consistent document object model, browser compatibility, and other priorities of your clients and end users. All these issues concern the smooth running of a normal website and account for about 364 days of the year.

What is also true is that there may be one or two days each year where none of the normal rules apply. These days often have a critical impact on the business or organization. Careful planning in the life cycle of the site can improve the general outcome. This is where contingency planning comes into play. Contribute and the Contribute Publishing Server can save your site, your company's reputation, and your job.

Things happen and you need to be prepared. Be sure you have a basic decision tree handy—a branching map of conditions, contexts, and options. It is a way of thinking through a problem before it occurs and trying to work through any strategies that might prove helpful. Your contingency plan's decision tree will have communication requirements and roles that need to be contacted to put remedies into action. While you may be familiar with the facilities that Contribute and the Contribute Publishing Server can give to members of your organization to update a website without advanced skills, it can also be one of the most efficient methods of communication to put web-based action plans into effect.

An unexpected emergency—whether real or perceived—can often lead to poor thinking and, consequently, poor results. Contingency planning is about preparing to help users navigate towards the best use of an organization's resources during a crisis. Good contingency plans are simple. They make the responses as easy as possible to implement from any given role.

Contingency planning also should recognize that the individuals faced with a crisis may not have as much skill at implementing a plan as the people who authored the plan do. It is therefore always good to test the plan with a dry run, making sure it is in the employee handbook and occasionally reminding the staff that it exists.

In this article, I present a basic approach to contingency planning and explain how to implement a web-based solution using Contribute and the Contribute Publishing Server.

Requirements

To make the most of this article, you should install the following software:

Contribute 3.1

Contribute Publishing Server

Fireworks 8

Dreamweaver 8

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About the author

David Aaron has been an IT trainer for Macromedia and Adobe for over 11 years and teaches courses in eight different Macromedia products as well as other technologies. David's development work includes large-scale content management systems, self-service applications, and e-commerce and trading floor systems. When he is not developing or training, he does project management as well as writing assessments and training materials for continuing adult education and undergraduate university programs in the United Kingdom. Prior to working as a trainer and developer, David worked as an academic anthropologist and a professional pastry chef. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he now lives in Manchester, England, and works all over Europe.