Four years ago, FICO started on a journey to align the technical writing organization with several key business imperatives, which resulted in the documentation moving to DITA. Once the Technical Publications department sold their vision to the executives, how did the managers and writers shift to this new structured way of authoring? What were their steps to DITA adoption in record time? Learn about their key successes, the obstacles they overcame, and their current results. During the last three years, the DITA deployment has matured and the team is now looking at taking DITA adoption to the next level. This talk shares FICO’s past, present, and future vision with DITA.
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» Globalink Power Translator Pro and Simply Translating User’s Guides and Help » The two products share much of the same code, the latter including a
subset of the former’s features.
» 2000—More Word and RoboHelp
» HNC Falcon Fraud Manager Credit and Debit Data Specifications » The two documents are largely the same, with identical feed layouts but
different valid values and definitions based on the market.
» 2004—Unstructured FrameMaker
» Fair Isaac Falcon Fraud Manager Credit and Debit Data Specifications, for UNIX and Mainframe » The four documents have the same problem as before, but conditional text
alleviates some of the superficial problems.
» 2009—XMetaL with SDL Trisoft Bridge
» FICO...Same Data Specifications, Data Dictionary and Database Reference » Five documents created using Excel spreadsheets converted into DITA
The Journey Begins in Earnest— DITA Implementation Timeline
» DITA/XMetaL training
» Workgroups develop essays to
find a common understanding
of their areas. Identify key
terms.
» Develop context-sensitive Help
delivery mechanism with
Common Components group
» Begin DITA department
standards, templates, output
scripts
» Committee charters, team
sites, communication
processes
» Initial issues lists, plans
» DITA conversion of usable
legacy documentation started
(used localization budget from
savings in DITA)
» Finalize Trisoft configuration
» Develop and document
department DITA standards
and procedures
» DITA Authoring Guide–
XMetaL and element usage
» Base DITA templates and
reusable components
» Initial writing style and
process guidelines checklist
» Initial DITA output scripts for
PDF in FICO ―look and feel‖
» Plan and develop common
topics –Content Specs
» Glossary terms
» Workgroups
» Trisoft Component Content
Management System
» Production environment ready
» Train department members
» DITA Authoring Guide–Trisoft
» Develop and review product-
specific and common topics
» Combine common and product
topics into deliverables for review
» Develop InfoCenter delivery
mechanism with Common
Components group
» Customize Antenna House for
Eclipse Help publication
» Topic automation via SDL Trisoft
API for data formats and
descriptions in Excel
» Finalize output scripts for PDF,
Help
»Final Falcon docs in review
»DITA Training
Q1, 2009 Q3, 2008 Q4, 2008
»Common and product topics
»Processes involving other departments
»Trisoft CMS in production
»Design
DITA processes
»Trisoft CMS setup
»Common Help component
»Combine topics
»InfoCenter
» Lessons learned: You can’t think through all of the problem details before you start. If you spend too much time up front speaking in generalities and predictions, you will have wonderful conversations that may have little to do with the practical nature of your information.
Confidential. This presentation is provided for the recipient only and cannot be reproduced or shared without Fair Isaac Corporation's express consent.