There are many reasons why enterprise search can fail to perform, but non-expert users tend to fixate on the search engine as the underlying culprit. To overcome this perception, we created a simple diagnostic tool. \u00a0We use it with intranet managers, knowledge managers and content publishers to help them understand other potential causes, and \u2013 crucially \u2013 appreciate that there are positive actions they can take.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Searching step by step<\/h2>\n
Consider the search process as 4 basic steps:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Content is published<\/li>\n
- The search engine indexes it<\/li>\n
- A query retrieves a selection from the content<\/li>\n
- The user uses the query complete their search<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
This greatly simplifies what really happens, but from a diagnostic point of view it gives us four useful starting points for things that might go wrong.<\/p>\n
![\"Hierarchical](\"https:\/\/irsg.bcs.org\/informer\/wp-content\/uploads\/enterprise-search-diagnostic-2-672x1024.png\")
Figure 1:Search diagnostic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Using the tool<\/h2>\n
For each step in the process, there are\u00a0things that need to go right, such as metadata, security settings and results presentation. In the attached figure (enlarged version<\/a>), this is the second column. The last two columns reflect underlying symptoms.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not practical to go through the diagnostic for all the content in an enterprise. Instead what I suggest is that when you get feedback that \u201csearch isn\u2019t working\u201d, use the tool to check for systemic issues that might broadly apply to sets of content. In particular, note that only a few underlying causes are \u2018technical issues\u2019 (green), indicating a search engine issue.<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Failures of content<\/h2>\n
It sounds obvious, but often the big issue in enterprise search is that the thing somebody is searching for just doesn\u2019t exist (1.1 in the figure).<\/p>\n
Metadata (1.2) can often be poor or lacking. Just using good writing principles<\/a> for headlines and subheads can help.<\/p>\n
Language (1.3) can also present a barrier. A technical document may be written in jargon (\u201cvariable performance related pay\u201d) when a user searches in plain English (\u201cbonus\u201d). Even harder, we may expect everything to be in our language and overlook other languages<\/a> (\u201c2016 sales results for Spain\u201d wouldn\u2019t necessarily find a document called \u201cResultados de ventas de Espana 2016\u201d )<\/p>\n
2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Indexing Failures<\/h3>\n
The first failure point for indexing (2.1) is that the content needed isn\u2019t indexed. Unlike the web, a great deal of enterprise content might have security controls in place, blocking the indexer from seeing it.<\/p>\n
More fundamentally, content may exist in a system that the crawler can\u2019t access, such as a network drive or an application. For example, HR departments may move all their guidelines into an employee self-service system, but if there is no connector with the enterprise search engine then routine content like \u201cParental leave policy\u201d won\u2019t get indexed.<\/p>\n
3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Retrieval Failures<\/h2>\n
Largely we rely on the search engine technology to get this right (3.1), however, too many results can be a symptom of duplicate content or ROT (Redundant,\u00a0 Outdated, Trivial), meaning a clean-up is in order. It may also mean the absence of good refiners, to whittle down results to the last six months, or only show sales collateral (see Metadata (1.2)).<\/p>\n
Retrieval also relies on user search skills. Google is so good we\u2019ve got lazy. But enterprise search sometimes needs very good search skills, such as the use of logical operators. If that\u2019s unrealistic, consider ready-made search interfaces<\/a> to reduce the cognitive load on the user.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Search results<\/h2>\n
Finally we get to the results page. If you\u2019ve ever done observational user testing<\/a> you\u2019ll know that sometimes people seem fly straight past the answer and onto their phone to ask for help. \u00a0So the layout of the results page matters (4.1), and the good news is that this can usually be readily changed.<\/p>\n
Hits on documents can make scanning of the results harder (4.4). If the answer is on page 52 of a document, consider breaking it into HTML pages. If the document exists but isn\u2019t shown, check the security settings (4.3).<\/p>\n
Finally, users may find the right result, but carry on searching because they don\u2019t trust it (4.5). Governance and publisher training can help here, such as owner and expiry details. Ratings and feedback can help too.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a digital workplace consultant, I often find myself in workshops with employees to gather requirements. Invariably within a few minutes someone will say \u201cwe can never find stuff, the search is awful\u201d, and the whole group will nod agreement. My company, ClearBox Consulting, has been working in the intranet and digital workplace space since… Continue reading Diagnosing Enterprise Search<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[188,201],"tags":[301,325],"class_list":["post-6242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autumn-2019","category-feature-article","tag-intranet","tag-search","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive-irsg.bcs.org\/informer\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive-irsg.bcs.org\/informer\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive-irsg.bcs.org\/informer\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive-irsg.bcs.org\/informer\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive-irsg.bcs.org\/informer\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive-irsg.bcs.org\/informer\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive-irsg.bcs.org\/informer\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive-irsg.bcs.org\/informer\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive-irsg.bcs.org\/informer\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}