Best Practices for Cross-Agency Portals

The following guidance helps federal web managers make important decisions about their cross-agency websites.

Should you create a new cross-agency website? If yes, how will it be planned?
How will you manage the new site?
How will the site look and function?
When and how will you retire the site?
How can you get help from the Federal Web Managers Council?

Should you create a new site? If yes, how will it be planned?

The first steps are to define the proposal and check existing sites.

What is the concept for your proposed website?

To begin, develop your agency’s high-level view of the web project and identify the purpose and goals for the new site. Ask these questions:

What is the purpose of your proposed website?
Who is your intended audience?
What do they need and what does your proposed website offer them?
Is there high-level support for this proposed website?

How does your new site compare to existing sites?

Does it add value or largely duplicate other sites? How will you promote and integrate your content into USA.gov, established presidential initiative websites, and other major cross-agency or single-agency website initiatives?

USA.gov can help you understand what federal agencies already offer on the web. USA.gov’s architecture is based on major federal categories of information and citizen services. USA.gov makes it easy to explore how different agencies answer key questions and offer citizen-focused online information and services.

After becoming familiar with USA.gov, examine some of the major federal website initiatives and click through sites to avoid potential content and online service overlap during your cross-agency website planning phase.

USA.gov maintains a comprehensive listing of most federal cross-agency websites.

Should you create a new site?

If your current or proposed content aligns with an existing federal website (either within your agency or in another agency), then don't build a new website. Instead, contact the owners of other sites to determine how best to add or integrate your content with theirs. Also resolve any conflicts between your information and content that exists on other federal sites. Adding your materials into existing sites will reduce public confusion, make it easier for citizens to find federal government information, and prevent cluttering the USA.gov and cross-agency spaces.

If your current or proposed content doesn't readily align with any existing federal websites and offers unique, better, or new information, then establish an interagency workgroup and develop a new cross-agency site following the guidelines below. Start by contacting other federal website owners who might want to contribute content or links to your proposed site.

One way to contact federal web managers is through the Web Content Managers listserv.

How will you manage the new site?

After you have defined your cross-agency website goals and identified your federal agency partners, answer the following management related questions. You should complete a management plan before you begin collecting content or designing the site.

Who will lead the effort?

Some items, like choosing the scope of content and resolving conflicts, are best done by groups. In contrast, daily decision-making, site management, site clean-up, and other routine tasks must occur without having to meet with partner agencies. One of the first site management tasks, therefore, is for participating agencies to agree on site leadership and how agencies will be represented. One effective management model is to designate an Editor in Chief who works for the lead agency chairing your interagency workgroup. See Roles and Responsibilities for a list of other recommended roles for workgroup members.

What do you need to discuss with participating agencies?

All participants should discuss and agree upon the following. Putting agreements in writing is better than relying on verbal agreements.

Time frames
Work priorities
Site, content and marketing master plans
Management of required resources (people, equipment, funding, facilities, supplies, support services, etc.)
Key roles and responsibilities (see Roles and Responsibilities)

What are the key issues you must address?

Participants in the project need to agree on the following:

Website domain name (see Selecting a Domain Name)
Logos, site branding and marketing
Content management decisions:
- Whether to use an automated content management system (CMS)
- How you will develop, acquire, place and manage content on the site (see Content Discovery and Publication for a diagram of a suggested process and Roles and Responsibilities for lists of activities)
- How you will train participants in your chosen content management process
- How you will approve content for public release
- How you will remove content and archive it for search purposes once its “shelf life” ends
Site feedback: seeking, recording, reviewing, and responding (e.g. responding directly to the commenter and changing the site if appropriate).
Handling sensitive comments
Licensing or contract agreements and funding for:
Site development, including coding and graphics
Site security and backups
Software
Hardware
Technical and marketing support services
Hosting for files and online services (e.g. statistical reports)
Accessible design
Usability testing
Anticipated lifespan of the site
Records management

This list isn't exhaustive. There will be many other issues that arise along the way. The interagency workgroup and group leaders must remain flexible and creative to address them.

How will the site look and function?

Once you've decided how to manage the site and collected content, you must design the site. Develop:

Look and feel
Information organization (e.g. Information architecture)
Navigation
Search engine
Online functions and services
Usability assessments

With these decisions complete, build the site according to your plan and timelines.

When and how will you retire the site?

When cross-agency websites no longer have high value or are of benefit to intended audiences, you should retire them. In some cases, you should distribute selected content to other sites or archive it for historical purposes. Follow this process to retire a site:

Notify participants and partner organizations

In addition, notify USA.gov and the Web Content Managers’ Forum. The message should include:

Date you plan to retire the site
Why you are taking it down
How and where you will distribute or archive content
Where you will direct online readers for similar content

Archive cross-agency website content

You’ll need to develop a retention schedule for content and other key information about website operations according to National Archives and Records Administration's requirements:

Records Managers Resources

Post a public notice that the cross-agency site is no longer active

Put the public notice at all main entry points for your site. Where possible, redirect users to new or equivalent federal websites and create redirect scripts for users who have bookmarked specific pages as alternative points of entry. Text examples:

As of mm/dd/yy, we no longer maintain this website. You can find content that was once housed on this website at (URL) or you can request it by contacting (name, phone number, and email of people responsible for handling such requests).
For information about the closure of this website, please contact (insert name, phone number, and email of people responsible for handling such requests).
For active websites related to this content, please visit: USA.gov/(insert relevant page), (xxx.gov), (xxx.mil), or (xxx.fed.us.gov).