Intranet Requirements

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Capturing end user requirements to ensure technology adoption

A Simple Guide
 Intranet Requirements
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A simple guide for capturing end user requirements

For many years organisations have attempted to use IT as an enabling technology,
to facilitate good communications and information sharing within increasingly
disparate workforces. More recently, the need for a truly integrated and virtual
workspace, an interactive repository, has arisen due to the requirement to give users
good quality, relevant information. The aim of this is to avoid employees using and
sharing content that they find on the web which may be out of date, incorrect or not
in line with the company's message and brand.

A good workspace aims to improve the communication between the different

organisational stakeholders and improve productivity.

In the early days companies mainly focused on technology based issues on

collaboration. There has been less attention and consideration to the user
requirements capture and subsequent implementation of the most frequent and
useful suggestions. As a result there is still limited uptake of corporate intranets.

This has hurt organisations and IT departments deploying intranets in two ways.
Firstly they have to second guess what their end users want and need which risks
complaints that the "intranet is rubbish". Secondly, when not enough time is spent
discussing requirements with end users, IT teams miss the opportunity to set
expectations about what is possible and what can be achieved with commitment and
input from end users and their teams.

Increasingly organisations and their IT departments are directing more attention to

capturing end-user requirements, in an attempt to increase the level of technology
uptake. However, due to the pressure of delivering existing projects and resource
constraints, IT departments lack the bandwidth to prepare a comprehensive yet short
enough questionnaire and interview process to complete this.

This paper includes a two page requirements capture guide which has been used
successfully by IT teams in Technology and Telecommunications organisations at
the start of new intranet projects. It is designed to get end users involved in the
perennial issue of standardising processes and avoiding duplication by asking them
to participate in problem solving. A future paper in this series will explore the
lessons learned.
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The template is used to capture the Intranet requirements from a department or team.

1. User Information

ß Name and role

ß BU / Department
ß Desired date to publish
ß Perceived Priority

ß Intended Users
ß What are the responsibilities of
members? Who are the community
manager, moderator and subject
experts?
ß What are the decision rules for
contributing, editing, reviewing,
deleting, retiring or archiving content
from the intranet? How often? By
whom?

2. Content

ß Desired Outputs: What key benefits

do you want to achieve from the new
Intranet to meet your departmental
objectives?
ß What is your functionality ! wish list" ? 1.
2.
3.
ß What will be the content on the
intranet? i.e. documents, blogs,
reports, forms etc.
ß Are there any security requirements
i.e. restrict access to some areas?
(please detail)
ß What other core systems are used /
and is three a desire to have an
interface into the Intranet?

3. Intranet Project Considerations

1) How do we improve business processes

and how do we deliver on that?
2) What structures need to be in place to
deliver this value?
3) How can we align our activities with the
goals of the business?
4) What groups are doing similar initiatives
and how can we help?
5) What ways can we reduce inefficiencies
and duplication?
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4. Appendix: Short Survey to all employees on existing Intranet

Question Response Example Comments

On a scale of 1-5, how do you rate the current Intranet site on:
Q1: Content & functionality
1. Is the content useful & easy to 1 # Very
Outdated, inaccurate, duplication, doesn" t work etc.
find? Poor
Very little use, rarely any need to access the
2 # Poor
intranet
Some content is of use, but I generally ask
3 # Ok
colleagues more than I use the Intranet
Useful content although some of it is not easily
4 # Good
accessible or updated as frequently as it should
5 # Very Very useful, I use the Intranet most of the time ,
Good very good search function,
Q2: Appearance
2. Thoughts on the ! look & feel" of 1 # Very
Really dull, uninteresting,
the site? Poor
Basic looking site that looks like it was just built for
2 # Poor functionality not for grabbing the interests of the
staff who use it
3 # Ok An average looking site, standard out-of-the-box
4 # Good Eye catching, interesting, appealing
5 # Very
Enjoyable to access, innovative, exciting,
Good
Q3: Navigation
3. How easy is it to navigate 1 # Very
Complex, difficult to find most of the pages required
around the site? Poor
Not very intuitive, inconsistent, takes a lot of time
2 # Poor
getting used to the navigation
3 # Ok Its average, takes time to familiarise
4 # Good Reasonably intuitive although some areas require
Very easy to navigate around, more than one way
5 # Very
to get to where you want, very intuitive, no training
Good
or familiarisation was required, one or two clicks
Q4: Wish List
What are your main reasons why you
would use the Intranet?

NB. Once approved, the survey will need to be published online for employees to access and provide feedback