The Nimble Elephant: Bringing Agile to Old-School Publishing presented by Shannon Holman of McGraw-Hill Higher education and Lee Fife of Flatirons Solutions at the Mark Logic Digital Publishing Summit, December 10, 2009 at the Plaza Hotel in New York.

1. The Nimble Elephant:
Bringing Agile to Old-School Publishing
Lee Fife, VP, Publishing Solutions at Flatirons Solutions
Shannon Holman, Director, Content Management at McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Shannon
shannon_holman@mcgraw-hill.com
http://www.shannonholman.com/feed/rss/
http://delicious.com/sholman
@shannonholman
Mark Logic Digital Publishing Summit http://www.facebook.com/shannonholman?ref=profile
The Plaza | 10 December 2009 Lee
Lee.Fife@flatironssolutions.com
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/lee-fife/2/409/901
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2. Agenda
• Definitions
• Context
• Challenge
• Stats
• Demo
• Process
• Questions
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3. Definitions
ag⋅ile*
— adjective
1. quick and well-coordinated in
movement; lithe
2. active; lively
3. marked by an ability to think
quickly; mentally acute or aware
old school pub ⋅ lish ⋅ ing
— traditional business
1. slow, ponderous
2. trailing market changes
3. primarily driven by past
conditions; nostalgic
*Dictionary.com
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4. Back in the day...
• Nearly 20 years ago, McGraw-Hill
was first to market with a custom
publishing application for higher
education instructors.
• At the time, Primis (“prime
information system”) was a bold
bet on emerging technologies
from Xerox PARC, Eastman
Kodak, and Adobe.
• Now, though, a rigid RDBMS
approach, an outdated UI, and a
tangled back-end make it a
challenge to fulfill the promise of
just-in-time textbook publishing.
• We decided to start all over again.
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5. Stats
• MarkLogic Server 4.1-3 stores • WebLogic serves up the Flex-based
over 3.2 million pages of content user interface where instructors find
representing nearly 4,000 books and arrange content and personalize
in 80 academic disciplines, along their book for print or eBook delivery.
with about 40,000 readings and
third-party business cases. • The back-end has been completely
rebuilt in Java and integrated with
existing systems for registration,
authentication, sales credit, and
royalty reporting.
• AdLib converts user-uploaded files
to PDFs, and iText renders the table
of contents and running head.
• We signed a contract in Dec 2008
and released in beta in October
2009, delivering a POC and 4 point
releases in that timeframe.
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6. [demo]
Let’s see that schizzle
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7. Nobody said it would be easy
“Today's orthodoxy has institutionalized a set
of internally consistent but dysfunctional
beliefs. This has created a tightly interlocking
and self-reinforcing system, a system from
which it is very difficult to break free. Even
when we change one piece, the other pieces
hold us back by blocking the benefits of our
change. When our change fails to produce
benefits, we revert to our old approaches.”
—Don Reinertsen, The Principles of Product Development Flow
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8. But since when was there any fun in easy?
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9. Agile + waterfall = painful progress
• What worked
• High-level of involvement
from Keeper of Vision
• Detailed tradeoffs at all points
in project
• Ongoing exploration of
options
• What hurt
• Emerging requirements,
especially UI/design
• Changing functionality =>
ongoing adjustment by team
• Governance headaches
Change leads to disappointment if it is not sustained. Transformation is
sustained change, and it is achieved through practice. —B.K.S. Iyengar
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10. Thanks, Questions, Credits
Old Skool graffiti by Banksy, Clerkenwell Road, London. Available at http://
knowledgeoflondon.com/graffiti2.html.
Frank, Robert. “Data Base Lets Authors Customize Textbooks.” The New
York Times. 8 October 1992. Available from http://www.nytimes.com/
1992/10/08/news/08iht-text.html. Rendered with Foley.com newspaper
clipping generator.
Jaipur elephant by Keith Levit via Flickr.
Underwater elephant by Cesare Naldi. Available at http://
blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/2009/10/.
http://create.mcgraw-hill.com/
BELIEVE! by The Peopleʼs Bboy Thugz Bunny via Flickr.
Houdini pose by MessyMissy via Flickr.
Respect the old school” available at http://www.gluegluedesign.com/.
BKS Iyengar video available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=lmOUZQi_6T.
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11. Special bonus track
Show your respect for old
school publishing by making
your own pressman’s cap
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