New Platform for UK News Group

Who? What?

A leading UK news group with award-winning online publications needed to develop a new platform for their online arm, as well as moving and managing the content of their existing sites. ThoughtWorks and the client team joined forces to tackle the challenge.

Why?

The client wanted a cutting edge website that would deliver maximum value to their users and partners, enabling web 2.0 functionality and the communities that build up around it. They knew they needed a new platform to support the change so they called in ThoughtWorks and started work together.

How?

An inception phase assessed the previous platform and found:

• The site held 800 000 articles which needed to be migrated
• The pages in the site (as was) were static, but pages for the proposed site needed to be highly dynamic and contain complex logic
• 700 pages per second performance needed to be maintained.

Following the inception an 8 month project worked on the redesign and rebuild of the site. A new content management platform was created and the first site, acting as a pilot, was developed on the new platform in three public releases.

During the initial project a specific Agile methodology was developed by the joint team to blend ThoughtWorks' Agile best practices with the in-house culture and the team's experiences.

Following the successful release of the pilot site, the joint team ran a QuickStart which determined the programme for the rest of the project, migrating the rest of the online content and sites.

What does the client say?

"It's been a great experience so far working with ThoughtWorks - not only in delivering the project to really tough deadlines, but teaching us how to adopt Agile methodologies along the way. We are looking forward to continuing to work together in the next phase of the programme."

Head of Digital Media

Key results

• 800 000 articles successfully migrated to the new platform
• Maintained KPI of 700 pages per second
• Content management for editors improved with new suite of multi-functional tools
• Enhanced user experience through dynamic page generation and interactivity
• Enhanced targeting opportunities for advertisers and third parties, and revenue opportunities for the client
• The platform has been established as the strategic basis for all the group sites.

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