Navigating the Vendor Maze: Understanding
XML Authoring Tools and Content Management
Systems
Steve Manning
Principal Consultant, The Rockley Group Inc.
manning@rockley.com

The Rockley Group Inc.
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

The Rockley Group sample clients
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

Our task
Provide comprehensive reviews for the CMS Watch
Report on XML and Component Content Management
Systems
13 CMS
5 Authoring tools
Report V1 was delivered in May 08
V2 is under way (to be delivered by end of year)
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

Our approach
Developed scenarios against which we could rank
tools
Had CCMS vendors provide a demo based on a
script
For Authoring tools we executed the same authoring
test script on tools
Also reviewed all marketing materials and websites
for additional information
Each vendor had the opportunity to fact check their
section
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

Scenarios
Tools were ultimately
ranked against
scenarios
Excellent fit
Average fit
Less than average
fit
Not applicable
We needed to be
certain that we were
measuring all tools
against the same
“yardstick”
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

Demo scripts
Task-based exercises that would fit some aspect of
scenarios
Tried to be specific
E.g.,
Show how you could import a collection of files into
the system
Show how to add object properties (metadata) to
the system
Each vendor got the same script (same yardstick)
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

Some things we
learned

Vendors speak different languages
They frequently use different terminology
Metadata vs Properties vs Attributes
Projects vs Publications
…
Therefore some translation was required
This was very frustrating in some instances
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

Focus on the good stuff
Vendors will focus on their strengths and minimize their
weaknesses
Not a surprise, but is was occasionally a lot of work to
get vendors to show weaker functionality
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

Seeking other opinions (references)
Vendors prefer to give good references. Bad ones are
important too!
If you ask generically what someone thinks of a tool,
they will probably focus on the negative.
Make sure you ask vendor references about themselves
and their environment, not just the tool
They might find a system easy to use, but you need
context to understand if you will find it easy to use.
Is a bad reference a result of poor tool selection?
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

The cool factor
Vendors all liked to go “off script” at some point to
show you something cool that their system did that no
one else’s did.
Frequently, the cool stuff wasn’t broadly practical or
useful. But it was cool!!!
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

Bad sports?
Some vendors really, really hate criticism
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

How you can
navigate the
maze

Success is in analysis
Know what your needs are
Understand your content lifecycle
Know you content and content needs
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

Learn the key features of CM
DITA, XML or Other?
Granularity of access (files, elements)
Module management (relationships, links)
Metadata (customization, manipulation, application,
inheritance)
Access control (check-in/check-out)
Version control
Version linking (specific versions/current versions)
Repository (data format, scalability)
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

CM Key features, cont'd
Search and retrieval
Archival
Translation management
Staging and deployment
BLOB management
Workflow
Audit trail
Certification (by regulatory bodies)
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

CM Key features, cont'd
Integration with authoring tools and publishing tools
(and a clear statement on what “integration” means)
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

Create your own scenarios and scripts
Have a clear idea of what you need a system to
accomplish
Built your own scenarios or use cases and scripts
Get vendors to run custom demos based on your
scripts
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

Get a customized demo
Describe your business process
Provide samples of your content
Ask for a custom demo that will demonstrate the
specific support you need.
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

Advice for a less
stressful journey
through the
maze

The answer will follow the question
Ask your teenage son or daughter this question:
How was school today?
Ask a vendor:
Do you support DITA?
So ask specific questions:
How does your system support DITA conrefs?
And get a demo
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

Use generic demo to learn about CM
Generic demos are good when you want to learn about
content management
Get lots of them as you develop your own scenarios and
scripts then move to custom demos
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

Understand what “we support”
Does it mean “we can handle it”
Or does it mean “we’ve created specific functionality
for it”
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

Ask for bad references
When you ask vendors for references, they give you the
good ones.
Go ahead, put them on the spot and ask about the
failures or the projects they’ve struggled with
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

Consider the intangibles
Support and maintenance
Partners
Vision
Stability
©2008, The Rockley Group Inc.

Questions?
Steve Manning
The Rockley Group Inc.
www.rockley.com
manning@rockley.com
http://www.intelligentcontent2009.com