Join Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler with special guest Ann Rockley, CEO of The Rockley Group as they talks about how Life Sciences can adopt agile best practices to: rapidly respond to regulatory changes; provide the content that healthcare providers and patients need when they need it and on the device they want it in; ensure that printed content is synchronized with electronic content; and respond to increasing globalization needs.

1. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.

2. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.

3. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Agile Life Sciences Content
Ann Rockley, President
The Rockley Group

4. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
The Rockley Group
• More than 15 years’ experience in
Healthcare
• Clinical
• Labeling
• Promotional
• Industry experts
• Structured content strategy
• Content reuse
• Structured content management systems
• Content globalization strategy
• Multichannel delivery

5. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Rockley customers

6. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Ann Rockley
• Known as the “mother of content
strategy”
• Forefront of content strategy, reuse,
structured content management,
multichannel delivery (print, Web,
eBook, mobile)
• Passionately committed to defining
and sharing industry best practices
• Master of Information Science
• Fellow of the Society for Technical
Communication

7. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Agile:
Today’s Best
Practice

8. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
What is Agile?
• The methodology associated with Agile was developed
for the software industry to speed up the development
of software
• Prior to Agile, the most common software development
process was the Waterfall process (sequential through
the lifecycle)
• Rather than waiting until everything is finished Agile
creates iterative interim deliverables that are assessed
and rapidly updated
• Agile results in faster turn-arounds

9. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Agile is
• Faster
• Less time to create, review, and publish content
• Less expensive
• Reduced costs of creation, translation, and review
• Less rework
• Controlled
• Current practices are very manual and subject to error
• Agile is controlled, typically through content
management (version control, workflow, automated
repeatable processes)

10. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Agile for Life Sciences is not
• As iterative as software development, needs to be right the
first time
• Developed through Scrum sessions

11. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Agile:
Today’s Best
Practice

12. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Agile content for Life Sciences is:
• Modular
• Reusable
• Structured
• Controlled
• Collaborative

13. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Modular
• Typical Life Sciences content is created, reviewed, and
managed in documents
• Agile content is modular; content is chunked into smaller
pieces
• Content is created, reviewed, and managed as modules
• Modules are assembled into documents

14. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Benefits of modular content
• Faster to:
• Create
• Review
• Change
• Translate

15. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
In context
• But what about ensuring that content is
correct/appropriate/understandable when it is modular
• Content is reviewed in context
• If content needs to vary in a specific situation, the content
is branched but still tracked in relationship to the source

16. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Modular translation
• New/changed modules are translated when they are
approved, no need to wait for the entire “document” to be
complete (dramatically shortens timeframe to completed
translation)
• Modules that are unchanged that have previously been
translated are not translated again
• A PDF of the section or document is provided to ensure
that sufficient context is available for effective translation
• When something changes, only the changed module
needs to be retranslated

17. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Reuse
• Reuse is the practice of “pointing” to common content and
referencing it into your material (not copy and paste)
• Write once, translate once, reuse many
• Review once, use “many” (e.g., same caution multiple
places is translated once and used many)

18. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Benefits of reuse
• Write once, use many
• Translate once, use many
• Update once and everywhere it occurs it is automatically
(or selectively updated)
• Mass updates take days or even hours, not months and
months

19. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Pharma

20. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Structured content
• Content has identifiable structure
• Structure allows us to identify what content is, not what it
looks like
• Inconsistent content can be made consistent through
structure
• Structured content is format neutral, any stylesheet can be
applied to content based on its structure

21. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.

22. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.

23. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.

24. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.

25. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.

26. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.

27. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Managed in source
• Content is never Never NEVER managed in the output (e.g.,
InDesign)
• Content is updated and managed in the source then pushed to
output
• Why not?
• Managing in output means changes don’t make it back to
source (InDesign changes don’t get made in Word)
• Updating InDesign or using it as the basis of new product
information is “brutal”
• Getting Word out of InDesign is problematic and error prone
• If the original Word files are used there is a very good chance
they are not up-to-date
• Multiple versions of the same, but different content exist

28. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Print
• Content can be automatically “poured” into structured
templates
• Translated content is poured into templates designed to
accommodate the language requirements
• Change the source, not the print, to ensure that content is
controlled
• Change the look and feel, no problem, simply re-pour the
content into the new layout
• Minor tweaking required

29. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Empty structured label template

30. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Automatically filled label

31. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Print: Empty structured InDesign template
IFU

32. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Automatically filled IFU

33. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Web
• Content can be automatically “poured’ into structured web
templates
• Change the source, not the web page, to ensure that
content is controlled
• Change the look and feel, no problem, simply re-pour the
content into the new layout

34. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Mobile
• Source content can be automatically:
• Layered
• Displayed/not displayed based on rules (e.g., screen
size)
• Mixed and matched to build customized/personalized
content

35. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Control
• Elimination of manual processes
• Content is managed in source, not output
• Change in one results in change in every occurrence
• Content is tracked at every point in the lifecycle
• Strict attention to version control, permission for change

36. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Collaborative
• Authoring is collaborative, many authors can easily work
on the same document and see each other’s work
• Review is collaborative, reviewers can review
simultaneously and see and comment on other’s review
comments
• Content that is common across products/versions is
managed centrally, no duplication of effort

37. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Resistance to change
• No more managing content in output (e.g., InDesign)
• Fear of reviewing modules not documents
• Use of new technology
• Latest fad

38. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Overcoming resistance
• Educate
• Expect problems, deal with them and move on

39. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Benefits of Agile
• Shorter timeframes
• Reduced costs (translation, review, publishing)
• Higher quality
• Predictable processes

40. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Agile:
Today’s Best
Practice

41. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Summary
• Make your content agile to respond to rapidly changing
requirements (modular, structured, reusable)
• Reduce costs
• Increase speed
• Take control of your content

42. @arockley
www.rockley.com
©2014 The Rockley Group, Inc.
Questions
Ann Rockley
rockley@rockley.com
@arockley

43. You can watch this webinar with
Ann Rockley on the BrightTalk Channel at:
https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/9273/133489