A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Quality Assurance For Museum Web Sites: Developing A QA Framework Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath, BA2 7AY URL UKOLN is supported by:

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 2 Checking In Context Scenario: We are aware of potential problems We are aware of tools to spot problems We are aware of the limitations of the tools We are aware of the need for manual testing We also have a limited budget and limited resources!

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 3 What Is Our Philosophy? Anal Retentive Regular testing Fixing errors immediately Fixing legacy resources It's A Technological Problem Use state-of-the-art CMS Automated updating of broken resources (Tidy to convert HTML files to compliant XHTML) Business Approach Scoping extent of problem Prioritising problem-fixing Addressing workflow Defining our expectations

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 4 From QC To QA Quality Control: Procedures for spotting problems Problems then fixed Quality Assurance: Documented policies Use of appropriate systems which can implement policies Procedures for spotting deviations from policies Fixing workflow so problem doesn't reoccur Audit trails If the policy is use of XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0, then MS Word is an inappropriate authoring tool If you fix an error, will the authoring tool put it back in?

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 5 Why We Need QA Consider: If the policy is use of XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0, then MS Word is an inappropriate authoring tool If you fix an error, will the authoring tool put it back in? Should you fix broken links from published documents if the policy is not to change history in this way? An audit trail can help spot trends such as increase in errors due to: Changes in workflow Changes in technologies Staffing changes

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 6 QA Policies and Procedures QA Policies: Should define the standards and best practices you seek to implement Should be linked to the technical framework used to implement the policies May describe allowable exceptions QA Procedures: Should define the procedures used to check compliance

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 7 Example QA Policy: Web Standards The Web site will be based on XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0. The Web site will use PHP to merge XHTML fragments into an XHTML template The Web site will access a backend database, which also uses XHTML Authors should use an HTML editor which does not create proprietary extensions or inhibit use of clean XHTML. HTML-kit is recommended. Resources derived from MS Word/PowerPoint need not be updated to valid XHTML.

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 8 Example QA Procedures: Web Standards When creating or updating resources the,validate tool should be used When creating or updating stylesheets or embedding stylesheets in HTML resources the,cssvalidate tool should be used At least quarterly a recursive validation of the Web site should be carried out using,rvalidate An audit trail of the quarterly survey should be published and comments provided on any problems

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 9 Further Information Further information on the QA Focus methodology: Developing a Quality Culture For Digital Library Programmes, EUNIS 2003 Conference, Deployment Of Quality Assurance Procedures For Digital Library Programmes, IADIS WWW/Internet 2003 Conference, Summary of the QA Focus Methodology, QA Focus,

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 10 Conclusions To conclude: Testing will be needed But: What do we test? How often? How do we go about fixing things?