The Importance of Governance in Regulated Content Governance is not a ‘four-letter word,’ but in many organizations, it is often regarded as such. It’s viewed as restrictive, and therefore reducing the ability of the content creator be creative. It’s seen as slowing down the creative process and introducing unnecessary roadblocks to producing content. In reality, it provides clarity to everyone in the content creation cycle, improves content quality, and reduces risk. Join Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler, and Charles Cooper, VP of The Rockley Group, for this free one-hour webinar. In this session, Charles will explain the need for governance when creating content for a regulated industry, explain how governance can streamline the process for content creators, and identify the benefits of introducing the “right amount” of governance. Webinar Recording: https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/9273/243409

2. • 28+ years in the industry
• Primary audiences include:
• High Tech
• Pharma
• Medical Devices
• Finance
• Industry Experts
• Intelligent content strategies
• Content reuse strategies
• Structured content management
• Content creation and management in a
regulated world

4. Charles Cooper @Cooper_42
• VP, The Rockley Group
• 25+ years in the content business
• Background in manufacturing and software QA
• Co-authored “Managing Enterprise Content:
A Unified Content Strategy”, “DITA 101” and
“Intelligent Content: A Primer”
• Contributor to “The Language of Content Strategy”
• TRG representative on OASIS TC on Augmented Reality

7. • Part of a Unified Content Strategy
• Content and model strategy
• Reuse strategy
• Workflow
• Taxonomy
• Governance

8. • Who can do what with what content?
• Who is allowed to change content?
• Who owns the content?
• If a content model needs to change,
what is the process?
• How are these changes managed?

9. • Do you have a reuse strategy?
• Do you reuse content within products, or
across products?
• Is it properly managed, or is it ad hoc?
• Reuse is technologically easy, agreement
on reuse is hard

10. • How is your content created?
• What groups are involved?
• Who approves content?
• How do you know what content is published?
• How do you publish it?
• Do you know if your published content is up to date?
• If changes to publish content are required, how does your
source get updated?
• What happens if you need to change your workflow?

11. • How do you organize and structure your information?
• Is your taxonomy designed for the convenience of your content
creators?
• Is it designed for your end users?
• If you need to make changes the categories or elements within your
taxonomy, how is it done?
• Who can make those decisions?

12. Day-to-day in the trenches Strategic longer-term decisions

13. Reuse
strategy
Content and model
strategyWorkflow
Taxonomy
Day-to-day
changes
Long-term,
strategic changes

20. • Handcraft content on an as-needed basis
• Manage content challenges by personal relationships
• Know everyone in our company or division
• Publish in one country and/or language
• There was a clear understanding of responsibilities
• Deal with a small set of regulations, and those regulations used to
change on an infrequent basis

23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6DE93esEug

24. Phone Rings:
Stares at it…
“Uh oh! What should
I do?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6DE93esEug

25. Phone Rings:
Picks it up, and
confidently says
“Uh huh? We don’t
do that.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6DE93esEug

26. If the people involved in creating, managing, and publishing your content
had that level of clarity* in their jobs, your content would be created
faster, in a more consistent fashion and you could have more confidence
in its quality.
* With a bit more positivity, perhaps.

27. • You can’t actively manage your information if you don't know what you have.
• You need to know:
• What information you have
• Who is responsible for creating it
• Who is responsible for approving it
• If it's used in multiple places, who owns it
• Who can request a content change
• Most importantly, how do you deal with the edge cases where
responsibility, ownership, future use, or strategy aren't clear

34. • All content?
• Content within a particular department, or for a particular purpose?
• Will you restrict it to content?
• What about workflow and taxonomy?
• Do you have a functioning day-to-day change management system,
but are lacking a method of managing your content in a long-term
strategic manner?

36. • Where possible, use or modify existing processes or tools.
• Don't try to save the un-savable.
• Just because you have a hammer…
• Also, be aware of your culture
• Technology is easy; culture is hard

38. Why would you try to manage a governance project without any ‘governance’?

40. • On the ‘project’
• On the ongoing governance panel or board
• Who’s interested vs who needs to be involved

42. • Explain the process
• Explain why your company/department/content needs governance
• Have examples of problems that governance could have mitigated
• Small day-to-day
• Long-term, strategic
• Promote these without personal or departmental blame
• Failures are usually systemic, not personal

43. • As a new process, training is key
• Train both on the why, as well as the how
• Clarity = confidence
• Without training, they can’t get that clarity

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46. • You probably already have something like this:
• Change request
• Publication change request
• Engineering change request
• Deviation request
• Does it meet your needs
§ Now/in the future
§ Can it be modified/adapted
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47. • You probably also have something like a ‘sanity check’
• You may call it a ‘review’
• Does it work?
• Is it performed by the person creating change request?
• If it's performed by someone else do they have the
necessary knowledge to understand the change
request?
• What's necessary to make the sanity check work for
both the submitter and the content or process being
changed?
1 5
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Sanity

48. • Rejection of the change request should not be
seen as a failure.
• It's a way to streamline the approval of the
change by ensuring that the information
required by the people in the governance board
is complete and accurate.
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49. • This might be where things change...
• Members of the governance board should
receive a package that contains the completed
change request and supporting information.
• Typically a week before the governance board
meeting.
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50. • Prior to the governance board meeting, the members:
• Examine the change requests
• Solicit input if required
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51. • This is a semantic role - SME or subject
matter expert.
• This represents any input that the
government board members might require.
• If you have an existing system, contact can
be through the system or can be done in a
off-line mode such as phone calls, emails or
desk visits.
SME
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52. • The goal of the governance board meeting is to
examine the issues and make decisions.
• It is not the time to ask for more information
about the change request.
Meet and
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53. • What this means varies upon the type of change
or the type of content.
• But it means to put into effect the decisions
made during the governance board meeting.
Implement
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54. • Recognise that you need governance
• Define your scope
• Use what you have, build on existing
• Take it seriously – make it a project
• Promote the purpose; target your pitch
• Time/Money/Risk – management
• Ease of use/Clarity/Consistent decisions – employees
• Use real examples to illustrate the need
• Don’t focus on the people; focus on improving the process

55. • Understand your culture
• Determine the people involved
• Train them!
• Modify the basic process to meet your needs
• Celebrate your successes
• Communicate with everyone on a regular (and frequent basis)
• Understand that it’s never really complete – the process may
change as your needs change and evolve.

56. moreinfo@rockley.com
cooper@rockley.com
Augmented Reality in Information Products (ARIP)
Developing specifications, guidelines, and best
practices to standardize key aspects of AR user
experiences.
http://bit.ly/1MxofPw