Audit scope outline: what a content model audit covers and what it hands you
This is the table of contents of a finished content model audit, where every section is a deliverable, not a meeting. Tick each deliverable you want in scope, whether you are briefing a supplier, checking a proposal against it, or structuring an audit you run yourself. The count at the side updates as you go, and the export is the scope you hand over.
Before the audit starts
- Access needed. An administrator login to the content system. No access to the codebase or hosting is required to begin; anything that turns out to need it is recorded as an open question.
- People needed. The person who publishes most, and whoever holds the technical contact role, even if they have no history with the system.
- Scope statement. One paragraph naming the system, the sites or channels it feeds, and the publishing activity the audit should cover. This stops the audit drifting into a platform review.
How to read the outline
The six sections below run in the order the audit runs them: the inventory and taxonomy come from the administration interface, the usage analysis and workflow observations come from the published content and the person who publishes, and the recommendations and the repair or rebuild position are built on the four sections before them. Ticking everything describes the full audit. Leaving a section unticked is a scoping decision, and it is worth writing down why.
Fill it in below. Your result updates as you go.
Audit scope
011. Inventory of content types and templates
Every type and template the system offers, against how many published items actually use it and when it was last used.
022. Taxonomy map
Every tag and category with its usage count, and the merge and retire decisions that leave editors one list to work from.
033. Usage analysis
What the published content shows about which parts of the model are real and which are theoretical.
044. Editor workflow observations
Sit with the person who publishes most and watch one article go out. Every field they skip, every value they copy and every step they do outside the system is a note about the model.
055. Prioritised recommendations
What can change now without development, what to build next and in what order, and what the audit could not settle.
066. Repair or rebuild position
The answer in one sentence with the evidence behind it, so the document works as a brief for whoever does the work.
A fixed fee content model audit.
Bring an administrator login and the person who publishes most. We do not need access to the code to start, and the audit document is yours whatever you decide afterwards.
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