• Tuesday, 25 August 2009 00:20
• Written by Dan Knauss

You don't want to pick a CMS based on features, you don't even want to pick a CMS...yet. What you want is to discover what you really want, so you can form some selection criteria to help you evaluate possible software solutions. Answering the following questions will help you begin this process.

• Who is your audience, what is your relationship with them, and what are you trying to accomplish in that relationship, online and offline?
• How large will your site be in pages and other content in the initial build?
• What are the primary content or media types you will be publishing?
• What is the anticipated frequency of changes, updates, and other content production/editing work you will be doing to the site? How many people will be doing that work, and what is their level of experience and expertise?
• What is the value of functionality relative to design (aesthetics and interface usability) as well as development time and cost? (Weight their relative importance.)
• What capacity/constraints do you have to support and maintain the software yourself? Will you need third-party services for support and to perform upgrades?