Guidelines for Development and maintenance of Websites of Government Organizations

Transcription

1 Guidelines for Development and maintenance of Websites of Government Organizations The organizational website is the virtual representation of any organization in the Internet. Therefore the organizational website should attempt to provide all possible information and services that the organization offers to its clients/customers. When you are developing the organizational website for the first time, it should be a well coordinated and concerted effort of all the members of the organization. Since all employees can not practically involve in this effort it is advisable to assign this initiative to a committee/team. This committee may be named as the Content Management Team. Sri Lanka ICT Policy for the government also advocates these guidelines. The relevant policy statements numbers are (1) Content Management Team (CMT) A. The CMT is responsible for the content of the website. B. CMT bears not only the responsibility of building the website but also the maintenance of the website. C. The Head of the organization should officially appoint the CMT i. CMT should be headed by the Content Manager. The Head of Organization should appoint a senior officer who directly reports to him as the Content Manager. It is advisable to appoint the CIO of the organization as the Content Manager as he\she is expected to lead all ICT initiatives of the organization. Box 1 : Functions and duties of Content Manager Directs the Content Management Team - to collect information from all divisions and units - to get the content reviewed by each head of the division/ unit - to hand over the content to the web developer - to review the prototypes and web pages and request changes necessary. Co-ordinates with the web development company and Head of the Organization 1

2 Make sure that the minutes of the meetings and kept in detail. Assigns members to manage, content online Present the website to the management of the organization with the web developer Signs off the website Convene regular monthly meetings to update the website ii. The Head of Organization should appoint a staff officer from each division/unit as a team member. iii. The CMT should meet minimum once a week during the web development period and once a month after the web is published. iv. CMT should decide in what language original documents (i.e. web pages) are originally created and how that information can subsequently be translated in to other languages. v. CMT should arrange to check the translated information for its accuracy How to go about building the website Web Development is a joint exercise between the client organization and the web Development Company. Both parties have different responsibilities and roles to play. CTM is the interface between two parties. ICTA engages web development companies from time to time through competitive tender process to develop the websites for government organizations. ICTA would introduce the assigned web development company to the government organization, advise both parties on basis principles and web standards, monitor the progress and make payments to the web development company. ICTA would only make payments to the web developer upon the receipt of the sign-off letter (which informs that the website has been constructed satisfactorily) issued by the government organization. 2

3 Box 2: Responsibility of the Content Management Team (CMT) 1. Deciding the scope and objective of the website What should be provided through the website to its clients/customers E.g. 1 Static information Vs dynamic information E.g. 2 Information only Vs Information + Services 2. Deciding the structure of the website E.g. 1 No of web pages (Minimum 10 in each language) E.g. 2 How those pages should be arranged and linked 3. Providing the documents and write-ups that should be displayed in the web to the web developer 4. Registration of the domain name at the Information Communication Technology Agency 5. Review the web constantly: review recent updates, submit requests for update to web developer. 6. Ensuring that the website is always available (up) 7. Ensure the website is up to date all the time. 3

4 Box 3: Responsibilities of the web developer 1. Providing guidance to the government organization a. Find and display few similar sites in nature to the CMT to provide a basic idea about similar websites b. Demonstrate the capabilities of similar websites in providing information and services to clients/customers such as interactions, contacting government organization (contact us) and making payments c. Demonstrating the capability of using local languages in websites d. Demonstrate the difference between static and dynamic websites 2. Developing a prototype with few sample home pages 3. Install Sinhala and Tamil Unicode solutions in the computers of the government organizations. 4. Developing the website to suit the requirements of client organization with minimum 10 webpages in each launguage 5. Liaise with CMT and update/ change website to facilitate the changes requested by the government organization 6. Host the website temporarily for review during the development period 7. Train CMT members on Content Management Tool 8. Assist hosting the website 9. Provide maintenance support for 3 years The task of developing the first website can be achieved by convening few organized and planned meetings between CMT and web developer. The following guidelines on how to convene those meetings would help the government organizations to achieve the task. First meeting between CMT and the web developer A. Guided by the web developer, CMT should view few similar websites. Since this is the first time that the most of the CMT members would view websites, web developer should show all web aspects to the CMT. E.g. Home page, Menus, structure, downloads, sitemap, contact us, payments ( use of local languages, Web developer should make sure both Sinhala and Tamil pages use Unicode fonts and also explain this to the government organization. B. Web developer should show the difference between static and dynamic web information, how important to have updated information, how it technically is done and what CMT members have to do to update the site. C. CMT should identify the number of web pages required and a suitable structure (this will be finalized at latter meetings) 4

5 D. CMT should identify the pages that should have dynamic content (supported by content management tools) and static pages E. CMT should decide the (Horizontal or vertical) menu. F. CMT should give few ideas to the developer on the banners and images. (Main banner on the home page should generally show some thing symbolic to the organization) G. CMT should identify whether dynamic pages should be supported by organizational (in-house) data bases. H. CMT should identify whether website should be capable of issuing/publishing circulars to facilitate downloading those from the website. I. CMT should identify whether website needs a web discussion forum (for users to post their request and comments) J. CMT should assign the members the responsibility of collecting relevant information /write-ups/acts/maps/gazettes/circulars/organization chart. K. Content Manager should noted the above deliverables in the Deliverable Table of which format is given below. Deliverable Table Deliverable Responsibility Deadline Delivered date E.g. Organization Deputy Director Chart (Admin) L. CMT Manager should minute the changes requested. M. Content Management Team should decide the domain name for the website. Box 4: Guidelines for selecting a domain name Domain name is the web address of the website. This address helps the web users to find the location of your website 1. Domain name should necessarily have gov.lk as primary and secondary domain names ( gov indicates that the particular website belongs to a government organization. lk signifies that the website has been registered in Sri Lanka) 2. Tertiary domain name can be the organization domain name. 3. In case of there could be confusion, government organizations should try to avoid using initials as far as possible. E.g. This could be Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Ministry of Finance 4. Domain name should denote the name of the organization. 5. Common names should be avoided E.g. commerce.gov.lk is not suitable as a ministry as well as a department exist under that name. 5

6 Second meeting between CMT and the web developer A. The web developer should present a prototype of the website and few samples for homepage B. CMT should review this in detail, suggest and request changes. C. CMT Manager should minute the changes requested. D. CMT should handover documents, write ups etc to developer. At the same time Content Manager should update the Deliverable Table. E. Content Management Team Leader should complete the domain name reservation form which is available at Third Meeting Between CMT And The Web Developer A. Content Manager should go through the minutes of the last meeting and make sure all changes requested have been implemented. B. Developer should produce a functional (working) website C. Web developer should give printouts of relevant pages to members for checking purposes D. Content Management Team should review this in detail. E. Content Management Team should suggest and request further changes if necessary F. All the changes requested by Content Management Team should be minuted. G. Content Management Team Manager should go through the deliverable table and handover the documents/write-ups etc to the developer. H. Content Management Team Manager should update deliverable table, add further required documents. Fourth Meeting Between CMT And The Web Developer A. Web developer should present the website version 1 B. Web developer should give printouts of relevant pages to members for checking purposes C. Content Manager should go through minutes of the last meeting and verify whether changes have been done and those are satisfactory, if satisfactory minute those. D. Suggest and request more changes if required and minute those. E. Content Manager should check the deliverable table and update it. Final Meeting before Presenting To Management A. Web developer should present website version 2 B. Web developer should give printouts of relevant pages to members for checking purposes 6

7 C. Content Manager should go through minutes of the last meeting and verify whether changes have been done and those are satisfactory minute those. D. Suggest and request more changes if required and minute those. F. Content Manager should check the deliverable table and update it. G. The web developer should demonstrate the content management tool to Content Management Team. H. Arrange a training session/sessions by web developer to train CMT members on the content management software I. Content Manager should nominate the persons who should update each dynamic area. This should be minuted and maintained in a table by Content Manager and should keep this information as highly confidential. Responsibilities of updating the website Area/web page Content Manager Login Pass ward Eg: News & Events Media Officer Presentation of the website to the Management of the Organization 1. Content Management Team Manager should go through minutes before presentation and minute the changes done/not done. 2. Content Manager and web developer should jointly present the website version 3 to the management of the organization. 3. The each section and page should be described and shown to the management. All web capabilities (content management, web publishing, local language support) should be demonstrated. 4. The changes requested by management should be discussed and agreed/rejected and communicated to web developer. 5. All changes suggested by the management should be minuted. Information Security Audit Once the website is finalized it is necessary to carry out an IS Audit in order to ensure that the website has no security vulnerabilities. ICTA would engage Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Response Team (SLCERT) for carrying at the IS Audit. SLCERT would issue an IS Audit certificate if the audit is successful. Unless SLCERT would inform the security vulnerabilities to the ICTA, Government Organization and web developer. Web developer should rectify and fix the bugs until the SLCERT issues the IS audit certificate. Launch of the Website The website should be launched only once the IS Audit certificate has been issued. 7

8 Government organizations please note: Hosting facilities (in addition to web development facilities) are also provided by ICTA to the government organizations free of charge. It is advisable to launch the website ceremonially as this is a remarkable landmark for the organization. Update of Website after the Launch The weakest point of government websites is that those are not regularly updated. In order to make sure that the website is updated the CMT should meet at least monthly on regular basis (e.g. Last Monday of every month). The CMT must monthly check the following sections at minimum. I. News II. Staff Information III. Contact Information IV. Service Information The CMT should ensure that all pages have page specific Last Update on field and it is being changed once the page is updated. In order to allow CMT to update the website it is necessary to train the CMT or web update staff regularly on the technical aspects of web development. Also advisable to use the Deliverable table and keep minutes of the meetings as those would be helpful when communicating with the web developer about web maintenance matters. One of the best practices for ensuring the web is up to date is to project the website by using a multimedia projector and review the above mentioned pages at the weekly management meeting. 8