A centre of expertise in digital information management Making Effective Use Of Benchmarking Tools Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath Email: [email protected]. uk UKOLN is supported by: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/swmlac-2005-1 This presentation describes the advantages and disadvantages of benchmarking tools and ways of maximising the effectiveness of such tools.
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A centre of expertise in digital information management Making Effective Use Of Benchmarking Tools Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath.
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A centre of expertise in digital information management
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Tools: Usability Of The Tools (2)
'Bookmarklets' and Firefox extensions can make use of tools much easier and provide additional features
Web Developer allows: • Features disabled• Additional information
to be provided• Tools to be used
Checky allows: • Validation • Link checking• Access to misc tools
These tools are very useful and their use by all is strongly encouraged
These tools are very useful and their use by all is strongly encouraged
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Quality Assurance
The tools aren't sufficient by themselves. Also need:• Documented policies: so we know what we're
expected to check for• Systematic procedures: for checking that we are
implementing our policies• Corrections made to workflow processes, and
not just fixing individual problemsIn addition it can be useful to have:
• Audit trails: to spot trends and identify possible problems in workflow processes (e.g. new tools deployed, new staff involved, …)
• Sharing experiences, so that we and others can learn
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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QA Examples (1)
Example of QA policies & procedures for file formats
Policy: The Web site will use XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0 standards
Architecture:The Web site will be based on XHTML templates and use of SSIs
Monitoring:New and updated pages validated using ,validate and ,cssvalidate. Every month ,rvalidate will be used & record kept
Exceptions:HTML derived automatically (e.g. Save As HTML in PowerPoint) need not comply with standards. The files will be stored in a standard directory to enable such files to be excluded from checks.
Policy for QA Focus Web site
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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QA Examples (2)
Example of QA policies & procedures for links
Policy for QA Focus Web sitePolicy: QA Focus will seek to ensure that links are functional. Monitoring:
New and updated pages checked using ,checklink and ,rchecklink. Every month ,rchecklink will be used & record kept and quarterly Xenu will be used.
Exceptions: Links in "publications" (e.g. papers which are formally published) which become broken may not be fixed.
If there are large numbers of broken links which would be time-consuming to fix we may not fix them.
We make no commitment to fix broken links once the QA Focus funding finishes.
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Conclusions
To conclude:• Tools can help in identifying problems
areas• However tools may be flawed and
inconsistent• In order to make tools easier to use they
can be accessed: (a) using a URL interface or (b) within the browser
• Systematic use as part of a QA framework is desirable
Note, however, that is essential that you do not rely purely on automated tools – you will need to engage with your users
Note, however, that is essential that you do not rely purely on automated tools – you will need to engage with your users
A centre of expertise in digital information management