Web responsibilities and roles

Based on research and analysis during 2004-05, Web Services has created a common terminology for describing the tasks involved in developing and managing University of Melbourne websites.

Eight groups of web tasks are identified. The descriptor for each task group should also be considered a role or position title. In most cases, web specialists perform a combination of web tasks that are additional to their existing job description.

The eight descriptors or groups of web tasks are:

1. System Administration
2. Web Development
3. Site Management
4. Web Maintenance
5. Editing
6. Authoring
7. Approval
8. Authorisation

When assigning these web tasks to university staff, or employing new staff members to fulfil web requirements, the following guidelines should be followed:

• Each descriptor or web task group has associated management, communication and/or technical responsibilities. You may undertake more than one task, though most task groups are mutually exclusive.
• You can nominate a descriptor or web task groups to one or more staff positions, but the nomination should be based on skill set to task performance requirement.
• In all cases, web tasks should be included in the position description of the staff member, thereby providing an ongoing staff development opportunity for training and professional development.
• If the web tasks account for over 50% of a staff's employment responsibilities it is recommended that the correlating descriptor is used as part of their position description.

In all cases, it is a minimum requirement that each website have Site Management, Authoring, Maintaining and Authorisation as part of the internal web workflow.

For of all web task groups, the following compatibilities and restrictions should be considered.

Compatibilities:

• System Administration and Web Development responsibilities can be performed by the same position.
• Web Maintenance and Editing responsibilities can be performed by the same position. In most cases, Web Maintenance is performed by a staff member that has knowledge of the site content.
• Site Management and Web Maintenance may be the same role.
• Site Management should work closely with all of the descriptors or web task groups to ensure the strategic direction and the business need of the site is met both in content and architecture accuracy and in technical delivery.
• Site Management can perform Approvals.

Restrictions:

• As part of loosely defined quality assurance model, it is necessary that Web Maintainers should never be Approvers or Authorisers. It is important that content be independently reviewed as part of the publishing process.
• Content provided by an Author or as part of the Authoring web task group should always be subject to Approval and Authorisation before being published.