A Web 2.0 Project conducted by Kimind- Part I : project definition

(this article is translated from french original article written by Nicolas Réau)

Kimind delivered at the end of summer the first version of a Web 2.0 site on behalf of one of our customers which specializes in car parts equipment. A project we have supported from requirements definition to delivery passing by its executions.

The context

The technical documentation center wanted to launch a platform enabling them to provide their customers with the documentation associated with their products, that is so far stored in inaccessible places, not really available and in different formats: text documents, presentations, videos … Moreover, their partners needed to easily add content themselves, and that customers can efficiently navigate in it. It should also facilitate interactions (comments, rating system …) to eventually create a community around the catalog and make it a reference, without falling into the complexities of many online catalogs.

Obviously we had to share the draft central contribution of Web 2.0 to this project: social networking, user-generated-content, assessment by users.

The first version should be ready for a trade show scheduled less than 8 weeks later…

The first major phase of the project was to define the project in itself and to choose the best solution to achieve:

We first had to identify needs and to establish general functional specifications.

From an original vague idea, requiring a collaborative and participatory vision of the problem, a Kimind’s consultant conducted a brainstorming session to clarify the project, generate ideas by the participants, define the participatory dimension and define all needs associated. He then formalized it and he generated in few days functional general specifications that gave the outline of the project with its Web 2.0 their dimension.

We could then choose the best solution for the project in terms of cost, time and sustainability.

Following this, Kimind quickly moved on Practice (technical recommendation): choice of a collaborative CMS and/or a programming language, advised infrastructure… all this being based on defined needs carried out. Our thorough knowledge of collaborative tools, through our everyday experience (for our customers but also internally), gives us fortunately a complete picture of opportunities, beyond the single dimension of technology.

Because of the short delay, it became necessary to start with a CMS that have a similar architecture to the expected results, and on which it was possible to graft complex modules. We naturally led to XWiki, a second powerful wiki generation, customizable and suitable for specific developments. In addition, XWiki is a French and open-source product!

In a forthcoming note, we will explain how we have successfully completed this project with short delays and very competitive costs…

Stay tuned!

The following : here