Functional Needs Analysis Checklist
You need to define an intranet's functional requirements in the planning stage - well before beginning production. Content in many forms is assumed as a constant (text, video, audio, PDF documents, etc.). It's the other features that need to be determined early. This section includes a list of functional components commonly used in intranets. They are sometimes referred to as "killer apps" which make an intranet invaluable to an organization. Look for something that will eliminate or streamline a cumbersome and inefficient process. Finding the right component (and implementing it well) can be a spectacular career move.
Every organization is different and your killer application may be unique to your company.
Review the following list and classify the functional components that your organization finds compelling into "need to have at launch", "nice to have at launch", "need to have soon", "nice to have soon" or just a "want to have". Once you've organized them by priority, gather information on the technical requirements, cost and development time required for each item's implementation. Quite often, this data will be the final factor that determines whether an identified "need" makes it into the final Project Scope Document.
Also note that every organization is different and your killer application may be unique to your company.
We will now take a look at some of the functional components typically implemented as part of corporate intranets.