A winning combination of 2 successful ECM approaches
Often when supporters of two methodological approaches meet, you see a clash and the discussion soon resolves to the level of ‘mine is bigger than yours’, however intricately versed. But this time something different happened. Opposites did attract and people found each other and are looking for a way to find the winning combination for an ECM approach.?
Each month at Ordina we organize the ECM Pizza Sessions (with real pizza!). We invite everyone we know in Ordina that cares about content. People can find us through our wiki and everyone is welcome to come and enjoy a pizza and some talk on our favorite subject: enterprise content management. We also plan to have a few sessions per year that are open to people from outside Ordina. It is always fun to share your passion.
During last week’s session we compared 2 different approached to ECM projects: the approach by AIIM as described in the ECM Specialist program and EPA, an approach I designed and have been using over the last 10 years. .
The AIIM approach is designed around building blocks that are required for a successful ECM implementation. The components cover everything from a Concept of Operations (showing a snapshot of the to-be organization in all its aspects) to a post implementation evaluation program. The components are hard to realize in isolation. They require knowledge from all kinds of expertise, but the approach does not state how to organize that collaboration. .
EPA on the other hand is optimized for collaboration, but does not define exactly which components need to be delivered. In EPA all different types of expertise needed for a successful change of your organization are involved from the start and work together closely after a deliberate negotiation on what types of information (or knowledge carriers) all experts are creating. Practical appliances of EPA show what those types usually are, but it is not part of the basic model as it is with the AIIM approach..
During a quiz session after both presentations the discussion was started whether or not the two methods could benefit from each other. The conclusion was that they can and should. Collaboration is a prerequisite for a successful ECM program. The required expertise will even in small projects require more than one specialist. The AIIM approach recognizes that more than one role or specialist is involved during an ECM program, but does not describe which roles or which responsibilities. EPA does not define what components are needed for an ECM program. .
We should split the AIIM components of an ECM program and assign them to the different specialists that EPA defines, managing the dependencies between them and thus stimulating collaboration. We would then have an optimal solution for fast and successful ECM implementations..
Anyone out there who would like to join me in the exercise?
