Building a Content Management System (CMS): Platforms, Launch Plan, Skills Needed

Building a Content Management System (CMS): summary

From-scratch or platform-based CMS implementation ensures effective creating, storing, organizing, modifying and publishing various content, including documents, digital media assets (e.g., photos, audio and video files), records (documents for legal purposes), and web content.

CMS Building Plan

The CMS implementation process differs depending on a project’s scope and a solution’s specifics. Below, based on ScienceSoft’s 10-year experience in CMS development, we list steps showing how to build an enterprise-level content management system of your own.

Step 1. CMS conceptualization

Duration: 1 week

• Analyzing an organization’s current information architecture, content management processes, and content types used.
• Defining content management needs and CMS goals (e.g., an ability to easily manage dozens of websites simultaneously, faster content development and publishing, more efficient storage and management of large amounts of content, compliance with government or industry-specific regulations like GDPR or HIPAA).
• Outlining the solution’s scope (e.g., customizable content templates, AI-based content personalization, built-in SEO tools, multi-language support).
• Specifying future CMS users and their roles (e.g., content authors, content editors).

Step 2. CMS planning

Duration: 2-3 weeks

• Deciding on a content governance strategy including content life cycle workflows, file naming conventions, metadata management, frequency of content updating, user roles and permissions, content retention/deletion, regulatory compliance.
• Defining the core CMS features depending on the content management needs. For example, if you need CMS to manage websites used for selling products online, CMS will require dedicated built-in ecommerce functionality (e.g., product description pages, product recommendations, promotional banners, shipping and payment information) or should be integrated with an ecommerce solution.
• Eliciting CMS technical requirements and creating a software specification.
• Choosing a suitable platform (platform-based CMS implementation) or a tech stack (custom CMS development).
• Planning CMS integrations (e.g., with CRM, intranet, ecommerce, marketing automation software).
• Planning a CMS development project, including project duration and budget estimation, target CMS KPIs (e.g., +75% website development speed, +50% traffic volume on the website, +25% user engagement with the web content, +60% invoice processing speed).
• Drawing up a business case, including cost-benefit analysis, NVP and ROI calculation, etc.

Step 3. CMS design

Duration: 3-4 weeks

• Creating an information architecture, i.e., categorizing content to ensure easy content search.
• Designing content management workflows (e.g., content approval, publishing) for each content type.
• Creating personas and user journey maps.
• Creating CMS prototypes.
• Conducting usability testing of the prototypes.

Step 4. Development

Duration: 2-6 months (depending on the project scope)

End-to-end CMS development in line with the chosen implementation approach:

• Building a platform-based content management system. We recommend this option if typical CMS features (e.g., multi-type and multi-format content, structured storage, full-text content search, automated content approval and publishing workflows) can meet your content management needs.

• CMS development from scratch. This option suits if you want a flexible and scalable CMS that will meet your specific content management needs (e.g., custom branding, integrations with legacy software).

Step 5. Testing and QA

Duration: 30% of development time

• Creating a CMS test plan, test cases and checklists.
• Conducting functional, performance, integration, and usability testing.
• Fixing issues detected during testing (e.g., slow page response time, errors in content workflows).

Step 6. Data migration

Duration: 5-25 days

• Creating a thorough data migration plan.
• Defining the content eligible to migrate to CMS.
• Checking the legacy content for errors and duplication, outdated or inconsistent data.
• Conducting content migration without disruption of business processes.
• Testing the transferred data and content for consistency.

Step 7. User training and CMS launch

Duration: 1-2 months (training)

• Creating documentation on CMS use (including a style guide that describes the rules of content formatting) and handing it over to CMS users.
• Conducting training sessions for CMS users on content creation, approval, publishing, and updating.
• Conducting user acceptance testing.
• Collecting user feedback and implementing relevant CMS improvements (e.g., in navigation, workflows).
• Launching CMS to the production environment.

Step 8. After-launch CMS support

• Fixing CMS bugs and performance issues.
• Adjusting the solution to the changing business needs (e.g., changing the layout, creating custom CMS add-ins or plugins).

• Monitoring and improving CMS compliance with government and industry-specific standards and regulations on data security (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA).

Consider Professional Services for CMS Building

With 32-year experience in software development, ScienceSoft advises on and implements robust CMS solutions for streamlined management of documents, records, media assets, and web content for corporate intranets and portals, ecommerce websites, and more.

What Our Customers Say

ScienceSoft's team of five Java developers and one test engineer have been working hard to ensure our <CMS> product – Enonic XP – exceeds our customer's expectations.

ScienceSoft's experience in agile development ensured smooth project implementation and iterative development of Enonic XP. As a result, Enonic XP has evolved into an easy-to-use and scalable platform, which is crucial for our success.

Morten Øien Eriksen, CEO at Enonic, a provider of an innovative CMS platform

Key Human Resources Needed 

Sourcing Models for CMS Development

CMS Platforms ScienceSoft Recommends

Below you’ll find a list of popular platforms ScienceSoft recommends for building CMS solutions due to their intuitive WYSIWYG content editors, rich workflow automation and digital asset management capabilities.

Cost Factors

The cost of building a content management solution may be different depending on various factors: