Course Curriculum
Eight lessons build from first principles to real-world practice. Work through them in order, or jump to any topic — each lesson stands on its own and ends with review questions.
What Is Content Management?
The history of the discipline, a precise definition of "content," what a CMS does and doesn't do, and why it's only ever a means to an end.
Types of Content Management Systems
WCM, ECM, DAM, and records management; the blurry edges; and the crucial idea of "opinionated software."
Content Modeling I — Types, Attributes & Objects
Reification, the full anatomy of an attribute, content types as wrappers, and the vital difference between a type and an object.
Content Modeling II — Relationships & the Shape of Content
How content connects, the five "shapes" of content, matching a CMS to your content, and the granularity trade-off.
Editorial Tools & Workflow
The content lifecycle, the people on a CMS team, versioning, scheduling, workflow versus approvals, collaboration, and permissions.
Content Delivery & Aggregation
Separating content from presentation, templating and "the surround," and the deep art of aggregating content.
CMS Architecture — Coupled, Decoupled & Headless
The coupling model, the history that shaped it, the case for decoupling, and the rise of headless and multichannel delivery.
Acquiring & Living With a CMS
The ecosystem, the selection funnel, the out-of-the-box myth, governance, content migration, and where the field is going.
Every lesson is grounded in the CM101 knowledge base — the books The Web Project Guide, Real World Content Modeling, and Deane Barker's Squirrel (a practitioner's guide to web content management), along with definitions, principles, and essays accumulated over 25+ years of CMS work by Deane Barker. Concepts, examples, and terminology come directly from that material.