How and When to Switch to Structured Content - Workshop

Nolwenn Kerzreho Technical Account Manager, IXIASOFT

Nordic TechKomm – 25 May 2016

How and when to switch to Structured

Content –Workshop

Agenda

• Hallo, Bonjour, Hello, Ciao• What is structured content & DITA standard• How to switch?• When to switch?• Example stories• Resources and QA

Nolwenn Kerzreho

Technical Account Manager – IXIASOFTcreator of the DITA CMS10+ years in the tech comm industryspecializing in managing documentation & translation projects

Adjunct teacher at Université Rennes >8 yearsContact @NolwennIXIASOFT #Nord_Tk

STRUCTURED CONTENT (AND OPEN FORMAT)

A “free” format for nimble content

Free to go where the users need it • Travel freely (via social and mobile, available on demand)• Retain context & meaning

(across various sources, usage and relationships)• Create new products

(thanks to reusable content, finding new and quicker-to-market ways to engage people with a message)

Well-structuredWell-defined Well-described – XML content is built to last, DCL & Comtech survey 2016

Even more “free”: open standard

Definition & characteristics of open standard:Free access to specifications (format is text/no costs), agreed upon content model…Wider adoptionMore software vendors / emulationMore training possibilities for writersLong-term format (vs paper)Collaboration through the OASIS consortium

What content format to choose?

• No financial barrier to access specifications• No technical barrier to access specifications

(written in plain text)• Maintained by international standard body• Owned by a community

Benefits: guaranteed content access, evolution of practices, interoperability, skills

DITA reminder

Portal

Mobile

PDF PDF

PDF

TOPICS MAPS

Reuse maps, topics, content

PDF PDF

Portal

Mobile

PDF

Conditional publishing

Portal

Mobile

Case ACase B

Publish Case APublish Case B

PDF PDF

PDF

PDF PDF

Filter with DITAVAL

Filter with DITAVAL

DITA Maturity model

Major benefits

• More delivery channels• Faster time-to-markets • More agile team of writers working on any content• Leaner review for experts, QA, editors• Leaner translation process• Spend zero time on quality control after publishing• Content more-focused on users’ context

HOW TO SWITCH?

Switch to structured content

Why? Typically to solve a problem / keep up change or be left behind)1) Define your goals 2) Define your starting point3) Draft your project steps

Example of stories – mix ad lib

1. We must document more products with the same or less resources.

2. We need to always upgrade tools to access our content3. We are moving to Agile!4. The writers spend more time adjusting the layout than

writing new content5. Already in XML but cannot reuse content...6. The manuals in target languages are always late or

worse: the product is shipped with no docs (more languages)

7. The crew spend their time copying & pasting (the wrong) content (desktop publishing)

8. Now we must deliver on new platforms/channels - our tools does not do what it needs to…

9. The users complain the documents are too long/they can’t find what they want

Example of stories – mix ad lib

1. We must document more products with the same or less resources.

2. We need to always upgrade tools to access our content3. We are moving to Agile!4. The writers spend more time adjusting the layout than

writing new content5. Already in XML but cannot reuse content...6. The manuals in target languages are always late or

worse: the product is shipped with no docs (more languages)

7. The crew spend their time copying & pasting (the wrong) content (desktop publishing)

8. Now we must deliver on new platforms/channels - our tools does not do what it needs to…

9. The users complain the documents are too long/they can’t find what they want

Recognize yours?

Test: align tech pub challenges with the organization objectives

1. New regional markets

2. Going Agile

3. Repacking with partners’ brands

4. Earlier time-to-market/less down time5. Modular product lines with options

A. All variants in content

B. Branding manually applied

C. SME cannot edit source content

D. Poor translation workflows

E. Flexible, topic-based writing

Organization Technical publications

1. New regional markets

2. Going Agile

3. Repacking with partners’ brands

4. Earlier time-to-market

5. Modular product lines with options

A. All variants in content

B. Branding manually applied

D. Poor translation workflows

E. Book format / rigid structure

Test: align tech pub challenges with the organization objectives

C. SME cannot edit source content

Organization Technical publications

Define your starting point

Questions tools & practices• Desktop publishing• Markup language• Modular structured

DITA• Topic-based writing• Already translating• Team trained

Example of calculations• Volume per product • Costs per page/deliverable• Costs of lost opportunities• Check translation costs /

volume• Time-to-market for all

languages• Check process bottlenecks• Review customer reports

re. documentation

WHEN TO SWITCH“PUT ON YOUR PROJECT MANAGER CAP”

Which steps are you at?

Any content and technological project goes roughly through those phases: i. Discoveryii. Preparation / ROI / Business caseiii. Test content / Pilot project iv. Implementation v. Roll out vi. Optimization / maturity

Timeline – pilot to production

Project Go CCMS (and other tools)

Pilot Roll out

? ? ? ? ?Planning Analysis Pilot Implemen

tTransition Use

OutcomesRefine

When to make the switch?

The sooner you START, the better…1. The process can be long(er) & requires

preparation2. You need to select your content format and tools

(pilot, tests, …)3. Consider the costs of waiting…

(hidden and otherwise)

Example of costs

Hidden/indirect: estimated quality of products, reputation & branding, support calls, internal/external dissatisfaction or complaints, formal issues after audits (regulatory)…

Plain/direct: extra tooling/software, tech pub teams morale, experts time spent on reviews, missed sales (late content), missed markets (no translation)…

EXAMPLE STORIES

Our content stories

1. New regional markets

2. Going Agile

3. Repacking with partners’ brands

4. Earlier time-to-market

5. Modular product lines with options

A. All variants in content

B. Branding manually applied

D. Poor translation workflows

E. Book format / rigid structure

C. SME cannot edit source content

Organization Technical publications

Benefits of structured content publishing“Get out of the formatting business”• Faster publishing• Branding automatically applied• Never another “link broken”

DITA reminder

Portal

Mobile

PDF PDF

PDF

TOPICS MAPS

Layout & format is applied at publishing time

Our content stories

1. New regional markets

2. Going Agile

3. Repacking with partners’ brands

4. Earlier time-to-market

5. Modular product lines with options

A. All variants in content

B. Branding manually applied

D. Poor translation workflows

E. Book format / rigid structure

C. SME cannot edit source content

Organization Technical publications

Conditional publishing

• Product line is modularized• Content has multiplied variants• Content is more focused on the user’s context• Content format is adapted to users• Decrease the overall volume sent to the user

Conditional publishing

Portal

Mobile

Case ACase B

Publish Case APublish Case B

PDF PDF

PDF

PDF PDF

Filter with DITAVAL

Filter with DITAVAL

Our content stories

1. New regional markets

2. Going Agile

3. Repacking with partners’ brands

4. Earlier time-to-market

5. Modular product lines with options

A. All variants in content

B. Branding manually applied

D. Poor translation workflows

E. Book format / rigid structure

C. SME cannot edit source content

Organization Technical publications

Increase collaboration with experts

• Use one format for all: no more changing formats between edits, reviews or for quality checks

• Streamline processes with a CCMS, automated reminder, precise assignments

• Send only the new content that needs to be updated or checked or translated…

Our content stories

1. New regional markets

2. Going Agile

3. Repacking with partners’ brands

4. Earlier time-to-market

5. Modular product lines with options

A. All variants in content

B. Branding manually applied

D. Poor translation workflows

E. Book format / rigid structure

C. SME cannot edit source content

Organization Technical publications

Better translation workflows

• Reduce the volume sent for translation• Streamline the process with LSPs• Streamline the reviewing process with CCMS• Automatically create translation packages with

CCMS• Pre-translate content

Reuse maps, topics, content

PDF PDF

Portal

Mobile

PDF

Our content stories

1. New regional markets

2. Going Agile

3. Repacking with partners’ brands

4. Earlier time-to-market

5. Modular product lines with options

A. All variants in content

B. Branding manually applied

D. Poor translation workflows

E. Book format / rigid structure

C. SME cannot edit source content

Organization Technical publications

Flexible, topic-based writing

A leaner delivery system (continuous improvement) – at the topic-level instead of book-level

Draft Review ValidationTranslation

Translation Time to marketCreation

Share YOUR story!

Collect what you know about:• your organization

objectives• your external users’

requirements• your internal users’

requirementsThat is your objective

Collect what you can do:

• That aligns with the objective

• Add what you’d like to do

That is your first stepping stone

Organization Technical publications

My story

Organization objectives

Users requirements

What I can do

What I’d like to do

Questions?

Slideshare: IXIASOFT account Follow me @nolwennIXIASOFT

@keithIXIASOFT | www.DITAWriter.comExtreme Writing http://www.extremetechwriting.com/ • Blog: www.ixiasoft.com/en/news-and-events/blog • OASIS DITA Adoption Committee articles

Resources

• DITA Maturity Model by Amber Swope and Michael Priestley

• Snakes and Ladders workshop for better content project planning – designed by Nolwenn Kerzreho

Further readings:• Use cases to download on http://www.ixiasoft.com • http

://www.thehrisworld.com/reasons-to-move-to-agile-development/

• http://dclab.com/resources/articles/without-xml-youre-leaving-money-on-the-table