Quality assurance policy

Disclaimer

The Head of Web Services, acting under the authority of the Library and Information Services Committee, may at any time make changes to this policy.

Status

Operational and ratified by LISC.

Introduction

The LSE website is a mission-critical service. It provides for both internal and external users.

In keeping with LSE’s culture(s), provision of these services is based upon on a ‘federal’ model: partnership is key. The LSE website is the product of around 350 staff and students working as web editors in partnership with the Web Services team.

A standard of quality in this context is achieved by setting the boundaries and allowing partners the freedom to operate within these.

The need for a standard of quality is required by the following, taken from LSE's Strategic Plan for 2006-11:

Priority 3 - Engage with the wider community

iii) Enhancing externally facing activities at local, regional, national, and international levels using alumni where possible

Priority 1 - Maintain excellence in teaching with high quality student support services

ii) Academic support services

iii) Administrative services

v) The alumni experience after studying at LSE

vi) Increasing satisfaction with the staff experience

Priority 5 - Focus resources to deliver priorities

v) Delivering a better value-for-money service in order to ensure appropriate administrative services for enhanced volumes

These goals can be summarised as follows:

Compliance – Provision at or above the standard ensures web services that are within the constraints set by law, regulation and guidance
Performance – Provision at or above the standard decreases the time spent by users trying to meet their information needs and increases the probability that their needs will be met
Perception – Provision at or above the standard contributes to positive rather than negative perceptions of the School and its parts
Efficiency – Provision at or above the standard reduces the workload on all staff involved in provision and facilitates better coordination between them

The guide enshrines the standard of quality required whilst the policy ensures that it is attained and maintained with respect to the LSE website. This will be achieved through an ongoing audit of the LSE website to ensure that its parts are provided at or above the standard of quality.

Definition of terms

Audit – Ongoing review of the parts making up the LSE website using a checklist summarising the key issues in the Guide and conducted by the Corporate Web Editor
Corporate Web Editor – Member of the Web Services team leading editorial control of the LSE website
Guide – Best Practice for Web Services Guide
LSE website – The collective name for all web pages at LSE accessible via http://www.lse.ac.uk/ (and variations) bar a minority provided independently of the Web Services team
Part(s) – The LSE website is composed of resources and facilities which are grouped together into collections. For example, the ‘Calendar’ is a resource provided within the ‘Study’ collection; ‘Search’ is a facility provided across the LSE website as a whole
Policy – Best Practice for Web Services Policy
Priority issues – Some issues listed on the audit would represent a threat to LSE if not met. These fall into two groups: ensuring legal/ regulatory compliance; ensuring usability
Web editor – role occupied by LSE staff providing them with the facility to publish to the LSE website as representatives of LSE
Web Services Team – Sub-unit of the External Relations Division responsible for the LSE website and other web-related matters at LSE

Policy

The Best Practice Guide for Web Services defines the standard of quality required of the LSE website.

The LSE website will be continually review by the Corporate Web Editor to ensure that all parts pass the standard.

Prior to reviewing a part of the LSE website, the Corporate Web Editor will notify the web editor(s) responsible and if appropriate negotiate a schedule for the review.

Parts which fall short of the standard will be corrected by the Corporate Web Editor during the review.

In cases where parts fall short of the standard on priority issues, access to those parts will be prevented until corrected by the Corporate Web Editor during the review.

Upon completing the review of a part, the Corporate Web Editor will brief the web editor(s) responsible to promote best practice.

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