Many different departments are involved in Web content (e.g., individual business or program units, public information offices, IT, Web unit, etc.) and all these departments have their own priorities. As one liaison between the technical and program units stated, “There mainly is the sort of lack of one defining focus of where we want it to go and what we want it to look like. Everybody from different parts of the agency thinks that whatever they’re doing, it’s the most important thing and needs to be at the top of the page and flashing red letters instead of in an appropriate and logical spot. So they [Web team] deal a lot with the personalities and the priorities.”

In addition, different departments have different understandings of what’s important and the workflow processes involved. The Web unit, for example, may have a goal of getting out of the business of converting 20-page MS Word documents into 20 linked HTML files, while a program unit may have a goal of seeing their documents in different formats and on different devices. Therefore, it’s important to clarify overall goals to balance them among one another and with the overall organizational mission. It may even turn out that two departmental priorities that at first were seen to be in conflict are, on a closer look, supportive. To continue the previous example, XML may get the Web unit out of converting MS Word documents into HTML files by hand while also making these documents accessible in different formats and different devices.

An XML-based Web site may not eliminate departmental conflicts but it can help to align priorities by stressing the single-source content and demonstrating how everyone benefits from keeping the content consistent, timely, and accurate.