Defining Your Constraints & Limitations: Step 4 to a New Intranet

Defining Your Constraints & Limitations: Step 4 to a New Intranet

This post is part of a series on the 10 steps to a new intranet. It follows Step 3: Communicating Your Intranet Requirements. 

February 11, 2014

*Update: Whoaaa, this blog post is really old! Check out some more recent posts here. 

Every project, intranet or otherwise, is constrained by 3 cardinal factors: Scope, Cost, and Schedule. Changing one of these constraints affects the others. For example, if you tighten the schedule, the cost will need to increase and/or the scope will need to decrease.

 Intranet project triangle

In Step 3: Communicating Your Intranet Requirements, you defined your scope. Now you need to define your budget and your schedule. Take into consideration both one-time costs and recurring costs as the intranet transitions from a project to a program.

A constraint is anything that inhibits or prevents your intranet project from progressing. In addition to scope, cost and schedule, consider these additional constraints:

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Language. Does your organization work in languages other than English? If so, support for specific languages is a constraint for your intranet software.

IT constraints. Some organizations must work within specific technical constraints. Some examples:

  • Intranet must be cloud-based (software and hardware managed by vendor)
  • Intranet must be self-hosted (software and hardware managed by your company)
  • Intranet must be integrated with Active Directory
  • Intranet must use Microsoft server software only (e.g. Windows Server, SQL Server)

HR constraints. Launching a new intranet requires specific skills. Depending on the scope of your project, it may be constrained by the availability of certain human resources, such as:

  • Graphic designer for branding
  • IA designer for content and navigation
  • Trainer
  • Software developer for custom extensions and integrations

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