Governance is the difference between a site that stays accurate, compliant, and usable versus one that slowly decays into stale content, inconsistent UX, and broken policy. Traditional governance artifacts (PDFs, wiki pages, long strategy docs) can fail because they’re disconnected from day-to-day publishing.
In this session, I will introduce a pragmatic governance framework for Drupal teams (roles, decision rights, review cadences, content standards, and escalation paths). Share the inspiration for the “in-page governance” pattern popularized by Cornell’s In-Page Governance plugin, where guidance is embedded directly into the experience of browsing and editing pages. Finally, I will explain where it plugs into the admin and theme layer, how to model governance metadata, and how compliance goals like accessibility and content lifecycle management can be managed within Drupal.
Attendees will leave with a ready-to-adopt governance starter kit plus an implementation blueprint for an In-Page Governance Module they can build or contribute to.
Learning objectives
By the end, attendees will be able to:
- Explain core web governance components: roles, decision rights, standards, lifecycle, and escalation
- Choose a governance operating model that fits their Drupal org (centralized vs federated vs hybrid)
- Identify the best “moments” to inject governance into Drupal (view page, edit form, workflow transitions)
- Design a Drupal module architecture for in-page governance (data model, UI surfacing, permissions, config)
- Draft a rollout plan that doesn’t die in committee (pilot → scale → measure)
Target audience
- Drupal site owners, product managers, UX/content strategists
- Drupal admins, developers, and platform teams supporting multi-site or multi-department publishing
- Anyone inheriting a messy site and needing sustainable practices
Outline (45-minute)
- Why Governance Fails in Real Life (5 min)
- “Docs don’t ship” problem
- Governance signals are invisible at publish time
- Governance Fundamentals for Drupal Teams (10 min)
- Roles: owner, steward, editor, reviewer, compliance
- Decision rights: who approves what
- Standards: content, IA, UX, accessibility
- Lifecycle: review dates, sunset rules, measurement
- The In-Page Governance Pattern (8 min)
- Governance embedded in the page experience (not hidden in Confluence)
- What “good” looks like: clarity, minimal friction, contextual, permissioned
- Translating the Pattern to Drupal (15 min)
- Module concept: “Governance panel” visible on page + edit screen
- Metadata: owner, purpose, audience, last reviewed, next review, related policies, accessibility notes
- Integration points:
- Node view (theme hook / block / region)
- Node edit (Form API additions)
- Workflow transitions (gates + checklists)
- Permissions & audience controls (public vs authenticated vs editors-only)
- Starter Kit + Rollout Plan (5–7 min)
- Pilot with 1 content type, 1 department
- Success metrics: review compliance, reduced stale pages, fewer accessibility regressions
- Contribution path (how teams can help build the module)
