Calculating the ROI for XML and DITA topic-based authoring

Calculating the ROI for XML and DITA

Topic-Based Authoring

Sarah O’Keefe, Scriptorium Publishing

background imageflickr: thelastminute

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Twitter

❖ Sarah O’Keefe

❖ @sarahokeefe

❖ #lavacon is the conference hashtag

❖ Also consider #techcomm, #dita


Overview

❖ Business case examples (with numbers)

❖ YMMV

❖ IANAL

❖ WYSIOO

❖ Big-picture musings on other issues (without numbers)


Localization provides an easy cost justification.

Flickr: iancarroll


Localization cost

❖ Estimate 30–50 percent of total localization cost is desktop publishing

❖ With XML-based publishing, you can squeeze that cost to under 10 percent

❖ Cost savings: $20K–$40K per $100K in localization cost


Increased content reuse

Flickr: a-m-photo


Content reuse

❖ Baseline assumption:

❖ DITA = increased content reuse!

❖ 10,000 topics

❖ Development cost: $200 per topic (4 hours x $50)

❖ 5% more content reuse = $100,000 in savings (and additional savings in localization)


Are you copying and pasting?❖ Calculate cost of updates in multiple

documents

❖ Consider error rates

❖ Don’t forget the mental health toll


External content reuse for increased ROI❖ Software error messages

❖ Product specifications in product database and datasheets

❖ Product descriptions

❖ Training

❖ Tech support


Non-DITA problems for content reuse❖ Improve collaboration among writers

❖ Develop and enforce consistent style standards


A wise man once told me…

“You should not implement XML as a substitute for creating a style guide.”


Also…

“Structure is no substitute for management.”


ROI depends on team (dys)function.

Flickr: kevenlaw


A high-functioning team is a prerequisite to…❖ Share topics

❖ Communicate updates

❖ Minimize content “ownership” issues

❖ Smooth out inevitable conflicts

❖ Cooperate on assignments


Complex conditional content may require XML.

Photo: www.christianholmer.com


http://www.christianholmer.com

http://www.christianholmer.com

XML can help with…

❖ Multiple conditional dimensions (platform, customer, audience, product)

❖ Huge number of possible variations

❖ Dynamic versioning instead of static publishing of a limited number of variations


Quality justification for complex conditional text❖ Eliminate redundancy

❖ More targeted information

❖ Meet customer requirement for personalized documentation

❖ Enable more versioning than supported in current toolset

❖ Enable dynamic publishing


Complex conditional example❖ 40 variations of a deliverable

❖ Configure and publish one at a time:

❖ 1 hour per variant

❖ 40 hours of work per deliverable, per release ($2,000)

❖ Dynamic publishing: publish once


Assumptions

❖ Tagging work does not change for static versus dynamic publishing

❖ Programming effort to enable dynamic publishing included in implementation cost


Complex conditions require careful design.

Photo: Rachel Houghton


Yesterday’s content…

flickr: uhop


Time to market

Flickr: chris_radcliff


Time to market

❖ If product revenue is $1M per year, then each week of availability is worth about $20K in revenue.

❖ Accelerate delivery of first language

❖ Reduce delays in shipping localized versions


New publishing

architectures

Flickr: ccharmon


“One of the great powers of XML is to

free information from being merely text on a page, and

to give it other kinds of roles.”

www.scriptorium.com/blog/2010/09/the-promise-of-xml-publishing.html

David KellySenior Technical Consultant


http://www.scriptorium.com/blog/2010/09/the-promise-of-xml-publishing.html

http://www.scriptorium.com/blog/2010/09/the-promise-of-xml-publishing.html

Integrating with user-generated content❖ Source content in XML

❖ Transform to accommodate user-generated content

❖ Use metadata to support unified search


Just-in-time publishing

❖ Topic-based rather than deliverable-based publishing

❖ Incremental deliveries for localization

❖ Content deliveries decoupled from software deliveries


Analytics

❖ Measure how topics are used

❖ Act on information about:

❖ Popular topics

❖ Unpopular topics

❖ Unsuccessful searches

❖ Topics with lots of comments


DITA implementation cost averages $106K.❖ Source: “The state of structure in

technical communication,” 2009. www.scriptorium.com/blog/2010/05/the-state-of-structure-in-technical-communication.html


http://www.scriptorium.com/blog/2010/05/the-state-of-structure-in-technical-communication.html






Your business case needs to show more than $106K.❖ Localization

❖ Increased reuse

❖ Support for complex conditionality

❖ Faster time to market

❖ Support for new publishing architecture


Factors that increase implementation cost❖ Software integration issues

❖ Complex output/formatting requirements

❖ Inconsistent source files

❖ Source files that are not topic-based

❖ Content management system

❖ People


Change management is critical


A few of my (not) favorite things❖ Dysfunctional teams

❖ Information hoarding during implementation

❖ Tool-specific blinders

❖ Using XML/DITA to clone an existing, problematic workflow


Dysfunctional teams

❖ Improve communication

❖ Improve collaboration

❖ Build trust

❖ Provide project roadmap early


Information hoarding

❖ Do not reward this behavior

❖ Implicitly

❖ Explicitly

❖ Avoid communication bottlenecks

❖ Document project decisions

❖ Distribute project information


Tool-specific view of the world❖ Ask for open minds

❖ Consider new features, not just cloning old features

❖ Try out a variety of XML tools


Cloning an existing workflow❖ Identify best and worst features of

current workflow

❖ Identify new requirements that can’t be met with current workflow

❖ Understand how new workflow affects authors


Match any two for instant XML justification

Topics 2,000+Writers 10+Supported languages 3+Deliverable formats 2+

flickr: booleansplit


Questions? Comments?


Contact information

❖ Sarah O’Keefe

❖ www.scriptorium.com

❖ [email protected]

❖ @sarahokeefe


http://www.scriptorium.com

http://www.scriptorium.com

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Technology

Calculating the ROI for XML and DITA topic-based authoring