DITA - What is it good for? (J Gollner 2015)
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A presentation delivered on April 20, 2015 in Chicago at the annual Content Management Strategies / DITA North America conference. It presents tactics and tools for presenting DITA, and its business benefits, to executive management.
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DITA - What is it good for? (J Gollner 2015)
- 1. Copyright © Joe Gollner 2015 Joe Gollner | @joegollner DITA: What’s it Good For?
- 2. What does Management care about, really? What do they value? What do they notice? What gets them excited? DITA must be positioned with the answers to these questions in mind 1. Utility 2. Agility 3. Productivity 4. Quality 5. Manageability Looking at DITA from the Perspective of Management Think about:
- 3. Utility
- 4. What Matters to Management? In a nutshell: Immediate positive contribution towards key performance goals In truth, it is rare for management to notice anything else Helping people (customers) to perform intended tasks • Find & purchase a product • Use & recommend a product • Maintain & update a product • Upgrade & extend a product Quickly & efficiently Utility: The first thing Content must do – Be Useful!
- 5. Utility: Content as a (Customer) Service DITA Content Business Proposals Sales Collateral & Case Studies Marketing Docs & Knowledge Base Articles Support eLearning Courses & Tests Training KeyExternalStakeholderTouchPoints
- 6. Agility
- 7. The Utility of Content demands Content Agility Content can be delivered when, where, & how it is needed • All Channels simultaneously • Dynamically adapted to be useful in all channels & across all channels DITA content can be • Easily grouped into new Outputs • Automatically published into all necessary formats DITA provides this Agility with an open & adaptable approach Agility: How Content can be useful in all situations
- 8. Case Study Software company Chief Operating Officer (COO) had blocked all DITA initiatives Operational issues traced to weak communications The Pitch 20 minute window with COO A “no-jargon” zone Modernization unavoidable Leveraging a best practice initiated by IBM was OK Agility: Outmaneuver Management Resistance
- 9. Productivity
- 10. Productivity is a function of: Maximizing returns while Minimizing costs DITA provides key “levers” Optimizes Reuse • Minimizes localization costs • Minimizes update costs Emphasizes Automation • Minimizes publishing costs Leverages shared community investments & learning • Minimizes implementation costs Productivity: Maximizing the Return on Content Assets
- 11. Productivity improvements are “table stakes” Large enterprises have set evaluation & approval rules Individual management stakeholders will be interested in improvements that help them Important Caveat Organizations are much less rational than they pretend Executives need to become excited to be genuinely useful Productivity: Return on Content (RoC)
- 12. Quality
- 13. Quality has been a widely used justification for DITA Integration of Outputs with all relevant data sources is great Unfortunately, it rarely grabs or holds management attention Quality minimizes key risks • Non-compliance • Threats to user safety • Customer dissatisfaction • Damage to brand image All important but all are “contingent liabilities” as opposed to immediate problems Quality: Perfecting Outputs & Avoiding Problems Nana Gollner Prima Ballerina
- 14. Quality is the long game Hard work & attention to detail Proves itself in performance Starts small & builds … like DITA Quality: Nana Gollner and DITA Nana Gollner - the little girl with polio who became one of the great dancers of the 20th Century
- 15. Manageability
- 16. Economy of effort & the integration of investments This does make sense to better managers Important pieces Measurability Asset control & protection Really important pieces Alignment with market Alignment with community Alignment of business activities Alignment of investments Alignment of user experiences Manageability: Economy of Effort, Integration, Alignment
- 17. Integrate or Outsource The secret fact of organizational life All content investments must Integrate data sources in a way that makes them useful and compelling Integrate communication activities that span & connect different business units Deliver content assets that can be reused across different business activities Deliver improvements to how external stakeholders achieve their goals Management: Integrated Content Management
- 18. Selling DITA to Management
- 19. Demonstrate what is possible If Utility is a hot button, you need to push it Show how information can be made • Accessible in many formats • Easily findable & usable • Precisely targeted to specific needs • Let’s say it….sexy This really shows how agility drives utility Sooth Management Concerns • DITA is an industry movement • Lowest cost way to achieve goals • Lowest risk way to modernize tools • DITA helps to integrate content activities Sell DITA by Demonstrating Utility
- 20. Showtime
- 21. A Public Domain Collection of DITA instances that can be: Used to demonstrate the key benefits of DITA to Management • Functionally realistic • Based on real content sources • Exhibits real-world details • Supports realistic scenarios • Realism is critically important when engaging management • They must see how DITA can tangibly improve things today Adapted to meet Demo needs Collectively enhanced Showtime: A DITA Demonstration Data Set
- 22. Showtime: Integrated Content Services Scenario: Thunderbird Content delivery >> PDF >> ePub >> WebHelp >> MobileHelp >> MS Word
- 23. Thunderbird DITA Demonstration Content A functionally realistic set of demonstration DITA instances Thunderbird Stormcluster software documentation
- 24. Showtime: DITA Sales Pitch Scenario: Alfresco DITA Pitch >> PDF >> ePub >> WebHelp >> MobileHelp >> MS Word
- 25. Alfresco DITA Demonstration Scenario Rapid update of the collection to reflect an alternative identity Images and product name variables adapted to tailor the demo to a given organization.
- 26. Position DITA against the key Management Perspectives Utility Agility Productivity Quality Manageability All of these are important but emphasis today falls on: Utility: Content as a Service Agility: Outmaneuver obstacles Manageability: content integration Realistic Demo Content Helps! DITA: What’s it good for?
- 27. Connections Joe Gollner Managing Director Gnostyx Research Inc. www.gnostyx.com jag@gnostyx.com Twitter: @joegollner Blog: The Content Philosopher www.gollner.ca
- 28. Questions https://github.com/gnostyx/dita-demo-content-collection Use – Modify – Augment Raw materials for building compelling demonstrations