Calculating the ROI for XML and DITA Topic-Based Authoring Sarah O’Keefe, Scriptorium Publishing background image flickr: thelastminute Saturday, October 2, 2010
Jan 15, 2015
Calculating the ROI for XML and DITA
Topic-Based Authoring
Sarah O’Keefe, Scriptorium Publishing
background imageflickr: thelastminute
Saturday, October 2, 2010
❖ Sarah O’Keefe
❖ @sarahokeefe
❖ #lavacon is the conference hashtag
❖ Also consider #techcomm, #dita
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Overview
❖ Business case examples (with numbers)
❖ YMMV
❖ IANAL
❖ WYSIOO
❖ Big-picture musings on other issues (without numbers)
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Localization provides an easy cost justification.
Flickr: iancarroll
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Localization cost
❖ Estimate 30–50 percent of total localization cost is desktop publishing
❖ With XML-based publishing, you can squeeze that cost to under 10 percent
❖ Cost savings: $20K–$40K per $100K in localization cost
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Increased content reuse
Flickr: a-m-photo
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Content reuse
❖ Baseline assumption:
❖ DITA = increased content reuse!
❖ 10,000 topics
❖ Development cost: $200 per topic (4 hours x $50)
❖ 5% more content reuse = $100,000 in savings (and additional savings in localization)
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Are you copying and pasting?❖ Calculate cost of updates in multiple
documents
❖ Consider error rates
❖ Don’t forget the mental health toll
Saturday, October 2, 2010
External content reuse for increased ROI❖ Software error messages
❖ Product specifications in product database and datasheets
❖ Product descriptions
❖ Training
❖ Tech support
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Non-DITA problems for content reuse❖ Improve collaboration among writers
❖ Develop and enforce consistent style standards
Saturday, October 2, 2010
A wise man once told me…
“You should not implement XML as a substitute for creating a style guide.”
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Also…
“Structure is no substitute for management.”
Saturday, October 2, 2010
ROI depends on team (dys)function.
Flickr: kevenlaw
Saturday, October 2, 2010
A high-functioning team is a prerequisite to…❖ Share topics
❖ Communicate updates
❖ Minimize content “ownership” issues
❖ Smooth out inevitable conflicts
❖ Cooperate on assignments
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Complex conditional content may require XML.
Photo: www.christianholmer.com
Saturday, October 2, 2010
XML can help with…
❖ Multiple conditional dimensions (platform, customer, audience, product)
❖ Huge number of possible variations
❖ Dynamic versioning instead of static publishing of a limited number of variations
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Quality justification for complex conditional text❖ Eliminate redundancy
❖ More targeted information
❖ Meet customer requirement for personalized documentation
❖ Enable more versioning than supported in current toolset
❖ Enable dynamic publishing
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Complex conditional example❖ 40 variations of a deliverable
❖ Configure and publish one at a time:
❖ 1 hour per variant
❖ 40 hours of work per deliverable, per release ($2,000)
❖ Dynamic publishing: publish once
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Assumptions
❖ Tagging work does not change for static versus dynamic publishing
❖ Programming effort to enable dynamic publishing included in implementation cost
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Complex conditions require careful design.
Photo: Rachel Houghton
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Yesterday’s content…
flickr: uhop
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Time to market
Flickr: chris_radcliff
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Time to market
❖ If product revenue is $1M per year, then each week of availability is worth about $20K in revenue.
❖ Accelerate delivery of first language
❖ Reduce delays in shipping localized versions
Saturday, October 2, 2010
New publishing
architectures
Flickr: ccharmon
Saturday, October 2, 2010
“One of the great powers of XML is to
free information from being merely text on a page, and
to give it other kinds of roles.”
www.scriptorium.com/blog/2010/09/the-promise-of-xml-publishing.html
David KellySenior Technical Consultant
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Integrating with user-generated content❖ Source content in XML
❖ Transform to accommodate user-generated content
❖ Use metadata to support unified search
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Just-in-time publishing
❖ Topic-based rather than deliverable-based publishing
❖ Incremental deliveries for localization
❖ Content deliveries decoupled from software deliveries
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Analytics
❖ Measure how topics are used
❖ Act on information about:
❖ Popular topics
❖ Unpopular topics
❖ Unsuccessful searches
❖ Topics with lots of comments
Saturday, October 2, 2010
DITA implementation cost averages $106K.❖ Source: “The state of structure in
technical communication,” 2009. www.scriptorium.com/blog/2010/05/the-state-of-structure-in-technical-communication.html
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Your business case needs to show more than $106K.❖ Localization
❖ Increased reuse
❖ Support for complex conditionality
❖ Faster time to market
❖ Support for new publishing architecture
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Factors that increase implementation cost❖ Software integration issues
❖ Complex output/formatting requirements
❖ Inconsistent source files
❖ Source files that are not topic-based
❖ Content management system
❖ People
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Change management is critical
Saturday, October 2, 2010
A few of my (not) favorite things❖ Dysfunctional teams
❖ Information hoarding during implementation
❖ Tool-specific blinders
❖ Using XML/DITA to clone an existing, problematic workflow
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Dysfunctional teams
❖ Improve communication
❖ Improve collaboration
❖ Build trust
❖ Provide project roadmap early
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Information hoarding
❖ Do not reward this behavior
❖ Implicitly
❖ Explicitly
❖ Avoid communication bottlenecks
❖ Document project decisions
❖ Distribute project information
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Tool-specific view of the world❖ Ask for open minds
❖ Consider new features, not just cloning old features
❖ Try out a variety of XML tools
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Cloning an existing workflow❖ Identify best and worst features of
current workflow
❖ Identify new requirements that can’t be met with current workflow
❖ Understand how new workflow affects authors
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Match any two for instant XML justification
Topics 2,000+Writers 10+Supported languages 3+Deliverable formats 2+
flickr: booleansplit
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Questions? Comments?
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Contact information
❖ Sarah O’Keefe
❖ www.scriptorium.com
❖ @sarahokeefe
Saturday, October 2, 2010