Why is content strategy implementation hard?
We are moving companies away from a heroic model to a process-driven model. Processes are much less exciting that the adrenaline rush that comes from working miracles to deliver the impossible.
The politics of DITA
Deciding on a content model is a critical step in many of our projects. Should it be DITA or something else? The answer, it seems, often has more to do with our client’s corporate culture than with actual technical requirements.
Migration for the un(der)funded
Content migration from format A to format B is a challenge in the best of times. And then there are the worst of times, like the depressing situation in this message (published with permission from the author):
Calculating the ROI of DITA
The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) provides an XML architecture for technical communication. Although implementing DITA is likely to be faster and easier than building your own XML architecture from the ground up, DITA is not suitable for everyone.
Managing implementation of structured authoring
An updated version of this white paper is in Content Strategy 101. Read the entire book free online, or download the free EPUB edition.
Moving a desktop publishing–based workgroup into structured authoring requires authors to master new concepts, such as hierarchical content organization, information chunking with elements, and metadata labeling with attributes. In addition to these technical challenges, the implementation itself presents significant difficulties. This paper describes Scriptorium Publishing’s methodology for implementing structured authoring environments. This document is intended primarily as a roadmap for our clients, but it could be used as a starting point for any implementation.
WritersUA: DITA pilot techniques
Mark Wallis of IBM ISS on how to run a successful DITA pilot. Some great information in this presentation on how to reduce risks.
He recommends selecting your pilot project based on the following items:
- Right timeframe — don’t choose the project that has an imminent release
- Choose a manageable documentation set size
- Reduce risk by avoiding the strongest (or most critical) product
- Identify a product with a known need to improve the user experience
They had one person out of a group of twelve, a “senior in name only” writer, leave because of this transition.
The ideal team for a pilot will need cross-functional and complementary skills:
- Project management skills
- Tools and technology strengths
- Product knowledge and understanding
- Architecture and design skills
- Editor for standards and styles
Some advice on planning your content. (And it’s worth noting here that these apply to good writing and topic-oriented content rather than to DITA tools.)
- No autopilot writing
- Don’t just migrate existing content; you’ll get trapped in old paradigms (this assumes that existing content does not fit the DITA topic paradigm)
- Perform use case analysis and task analysis
- Determine the critical scenarios to document
- Focus on tasks; backfill supporting information as needed
Some interesting discussion of “task support clusters,” which include conceptual overviews, related tasks, deep concept, and reference information. (Michael Hughes did a presentation on this earlier today, which I unfortunately was not able to attend.)
They set up a DITA War Room in a small conference room and met at least daily (1.5 to 2 hours per day. Yikes). They set weekly goals and used small tasks to build momentum.
There was also heavy use of an internal wiki to put up initial “straw man” design, then revise, comment, and discuss.
Layering deliverables
Implementation deliverables were split out into smaller tasks, such as:
- Creating topic files, links, and navigation
- Testing links from code and navigation
- Creating task and reference topics
- Validating help against the user interface
- Creating concept topics for principles, guidelines, and best practices (“deep concept”)
- Validating content in the expert community
For the third time, he points out that they are no longer documenting how to use a check box, so I guess I’ll mention it.
Choosing the DITA toolset
Task Modeler (free) for building and managing ditamaps, defining relationships between topics, and creating skeleton topics (stub files).
DITA-compliant editor to edit your topics.
Compiler (part of open source toolkit). Compiler? What are they compiling? HTML Help? Oh. He just referred to Ant as a compiler. Ohhhhhkay.
Proof of concept
They picked a subset of the pilot to do the proof of concept.
The presenter’s boss is quoted as saying, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only insufficient clothing.” I’m guessing that she’s never been to Minnesota in winter.
The objectives for the proof of concept:
- Learn and evaluate tools
- Address technical obstacles
- Specify end-to-end requirements
They learned that deliverable formats matter because they must deliver several different formats.
Managing costs
Purchase toolsets only for pilot team.
After completing proof of concept (successfully!), invest in tools for the remaining writers.
Wiki
They used their wiki to capture conventions and guidelines.
Improving acceptance
They paid attention to the change management issues. He doesn’t mention it here, but I would assume that the combination of an acquisition by IBM plus the requirement to change the authoring environment could have caused significant angst. Their approach included presentations, wiki content, email discussions, and online training.
At the point of transition, DITA boot camp was offered.
They used collaborative walkthroughs, or reviews, to help standardize their content development. Interesting. This sounds as though it could be a) threatening and b) an unbelievable time sink. But just maybe it might also c) help improve the content.
Other lessons learned
Think more, write less. (Don’t document the obvious, don’t document common user interface convention, write only if you’re really adding value.)
Don’t squander your ignorance. (If something makes you stumble in the interface, that will probably also cause problems for your users, so capture it.)
The more structured your content, the easier the transition to DITA.
Documenting the obvious teaches readers to ignore your text, so don’t document the obvious.
The handouts are available here: http://www.writersua.com/ohc/suppmatl/
LearningDITA: What’s new and how it enhances your learning experience
In this episode, Alan Pringle, Gretyl Kinsey, and Allison Beatty discuss LearningDITA, a hub for training on the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA). They dive into the story behind LearningDITA, explore our course topics, and share an exclusive coupon code for our podcast listeners.
Gretyl Kinsey: Over time that user base grew and grew. And now it boggles my mind that it got all the way up to 16,000 users. I never expected it to grow to that size.
Alan Pringle: Well, we didn’t really either, nor did our infrastructure. Because as of late 2024, things started to go a little sideways, and it became clear our tech stack was not going to be able to sustain more students. It was very creaky. The site wasn’t performing well. So we made a decision that we needed to take the site offline, and we did, to basically redo it on a new platform.
Calculate your DITA ROI
Will DITA bring enough value to your content operations to justify the investment costs? Calculate your DITA ROI to decide.
Taxonomy: Simplify search, create consistency, and more (podcast, part 1)
Can your learners find critical content when they need it? How do you deliver personalized learning experiences at scale? A learning content taxonomy might be your solution! In part one of this two-part series, Gretyl Kinsey and Allison Beatty share what a taxonomy is, the nuances of taxonomies for learning content, and how a taxonomy supports improved learner experiences in self-paced e-learning environments, instructor-led training, and more.
Allison Beatty: I know we’ve made taxonomies through all sorts of different frames, whether it’s structuring learning content, or we’ve made product taxonomies. It’s really a very flexible and useful thing to be able to implement in your organization.
Gretyl Kinsey: And it not only helps with that user experience for things like learning objectives, but it can also help your learners find the right courses to take. If you have some information in your taxonomy that’s designed to narrow it down to a learner saying, “I need to learn about this specific subject.” And that could have several layers of hierarchy to it. It could also help your learners understand what to go back and review based on the learning objectives. It can help them make some decisions around how they need to take a course.
