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A short workshop on Content Modelling delivered at TC World / Tekom 2013 in Wiesbaden, Germany. This workshop digs into some of the fundamental concepts and techniques that need to be weighed when framing an effective approach Content Modelling. Essentially introduces the influences, including a sojourn at MIT where I encountered the Object Process Methodology, that led to a "Content Modelling Technique".
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Copyright © Joe Gollner 2013
Content
Modelling Joe Gollner
Gnostyx Research Inc.
www.gollner.ca
@joegollner
Core Concepts & Terminology
Perspectives on
Content Modelling
Content Modelling
Technique
The Three Key Sides to
Content Modelling
Content Types
Content Composition
Content Processes
Workshop Topics
Core Concepts & Terminology
Content
Core Concepts: Content & Information
Content is potential information (an asset)
Is what we
plan, design, create, reuse & manage
so that we can deliver effective
information products
Is the meaningful organization of data
communicated in a specific context
with the purpose of influencing others
Information is a transaction (an action)
Information transactions contain content
Information
Publishing
The process of transforming
content assets
into information products
that can be effectively transacted
Documents
Documents are the persistent form of
information transactions that have been
exchanged as part of a business process.
Documents are a fact of life & can take
many forms.
Related Definitions
Content
Acquisition
Creation
Content
Delivery
Publishing
Content
Engagement
Use
Building Blocks in the Content Lifecycle
ContentAcquisition
ContentManagement
ContentDelivery
ContentEngagement
Content Management
Control
Content Strategy
A strategy is a plan of action
directed towards achieving
a long-term goal through the
coordination, integration
and application of the
resources and capabilities
available to an enterprise
A Content Strategy seeks to make content a strategic asset that
can be leveraged by state-of-the-art technology to achieve
concrete business goals. This strategy will set out a plan of
balanced investments to improve how content is acquired,
delivered, engaged and managed. A Content Strategy also, and
perhaps primarily, determines what content is needed & why.
ContentAcquisition
ContentManagement
ContentDelivery
ContentEngagement
ContentStrategy
Questions Surrounding the Content Lifecycle
• Content is only
usefully understood
as part of its lifecycle
• Where it comes from?
• Where it goes?
• Who is responsible
for it?
• Why is it created
in the first place?
• How is it published?
• How many different information products will it support?
• How are the published information products used?
ContentAcquisition
ContentManagement
ContentDelivery
ContentEngagement
ContentStrategy
The Role of Content Architecture
Content Architecture
ContentAcquisition
ContentManagement
ContentDelivery
ContentEngagement
ContentStrategy
Content Solution
Content Model
A detailed model of the content and its lifecycle
Identifies:· Content Types· Content Composition· Content Process Steps
Establishes the point of reference for all content solution implementation activities
Perspectives on Content Modelling
Content Archeology
Rahel Bailie
www.intentionaldesign.ca
Identifying & studying
content “in the wild” &
following the paths inside
Often a major
revelation for
content
owners
Understanding the Content Inside
Cleve Gibbon
www.clevegibbon.com
Developing a model of what happens behind the
page in order to design a content architecture that
will govern a content management solution
Applying the all-important
discipline of abstraction
in order to establish more
general technical solutions
UML is a standardized
modeling language for
designing software
applications
www.uml.org
Object Management
Group (OMG)
Use Case Diagrams
Models the interaction
between users and
the software application
System perspectice
Unified Modeling Language (UML 2.0)
Class Diagrams
Used to model the static
structure of a system
Models the classes in a
system, including their
attributes, methods, and
relationships
Can be applied to the
content resources within a
system and their attributes
and relationships
• Type Hierarchies
• Composition
• Other relationships
Unified Modeling Language (UML 2.0)
Business Process Model & Notation (BPMN)
Jackie Damrau & Joe Gollner – Business Process Workshop (2013)
BPMN 2.0 is from the Object Management Group (OMG)
as a tool for understanding, graphically, business procedures
www.bpmn.org
Large-scale
software project
$225 million
Content & document
handling processes
Modeling Approach
UML & full suite of Enterprise software design tools
International specialists brought onboard to assist in planning
Substantial budget set aside for stakeholder engagement
Result
Communication breakdown. Models not understood at all.
Case Study: A Breakdown in Modeling
Microstar Near & Far
Document Type Definition (DTD) Visual Modeller
Very popular & dearly missed
Simple enough to show executives
Only addressed content structure
Modelling Content Structures
Looking for a Better Answer
Designed as a unification & rationalization
of UML providing an integrated, single view
of complex systems
Object Process Methodology (OPM)
Prof Dov Dori
Israel Institute
of Technology &
MIT
www.opcat.com
OPM Modeling Notation
Object Process Object States1 2
RelationshipsAgent Link
Effect Link
Integrated modeling notation
designed for complex systems
Establishes Objects and
Processes as the two
fundamental building blocks
Processes change Objects
Single modeling view
- Inheritance
- Composition
- Process flow
Exhibits
Alternatives were unsatisfying in being either:
Too complex to use with executive & business stakeholders
Too oriented towards software design
• UML / OPM
Too superficial to facilitate a rigorous understanding of
content & content processes for the purposes of automation
• Flowcharting / BPMN
Too limited in only representing content structures but not
processing events
• Near & Far / Visual tools for modelling XML Schemas
The Search Continued
Content Modelling Technique
A Content Modelling Technique could be
constructed from:
Object Process Methodology (OPM)
• Basic framework where objects & processes are treated as peers
IDEF0 Function Modelling
• General principles for representing manufacturing processes
Object Modeling Technique (OMT)
• Visually elegant precursor to UML
A strict discipline could be applied to limit the visual complexity
of diagrams while addressing the needs of content modelling
The Search for a Content Modelling Technique
IDEF0 – Function Modelling
ICAM Definition for Function Modelling
ICAM – Integration Computer-Aided
Manufacturing
Drawing on Multiple Sources: IDEF0
OMT
Modelling
technique
developed in
1991 by a team
led by James
Rumbaugh (a
later contributor
to UML)
Object Modeling Technique (OMT)
Content Modelling Technique - Notation
Three Building Blocks:
- Objects
- Processes
- Actors
What’s New: Actors
- Elevation of OPM Agent link
- Analogous to the UML Actor
- Actors are people or organizations
who are responsible for outcomes
Content Modelling Technique (CMT)
Inheritance CompositionFlow
One or more Zero or more
One Zero or one
Start End
Order
Object Process Actor
Choice
Objects are “things” that can be used, consumed, produced or called upon to provide a service.
Relationship Cardinality
ChoiceDetails
Annotation
Processes act upon “objects” in order to change their state. Processes may use, consume, produce objects or depend upon the services from objects.
Actors assume responsibility for outcomes. Actors can call upon processes, objects & other actors.
A modeling technique that provides a systematic and disciplined way to represent content objects and processesin the context of business goals and responsibilities assumed by organizations or individuals (actors).
Object
“Thing” that can be acted upon
• Examples:
• Document Artifact
• Information Resource
• Content Asset
Can exhibit Attributes
States can be changed by processes
Can be used in the sense of an object in O-O
analysis & design to encapsulate behaviour
CMT Objects
Object
Object
Attributes
ProcessProcess
Activity that can act upon,
and change the state of, objects
Can be manual or automated or a combination
Can be broken down into discrete process steps
Must always have at least one object as an input
Must always have at least one object as an output
Process steps are connected by object transfers
CMT Processes
ActorActor
Nexus of responsibility
• Individual
• Organization
Responsible for a process & its outcomes
“Owns” objects
Can play one or more roles in a process
• Examples:
• Creator
• Approver
CMT Actors
Inheritance
Establish a type hierarchy classification scheme
exhibiting “is-a” relationships
• A Taxonomy
• Child types are said to be specializations
of the more general types
Examples
• Content Type specialization
• A test is a specialized
form of a task
• Actor Type specialization
• Business Analyst &
Technical Analyst are
types of Analyst
CMT Inheritance
Inheritance
test
task
Analyst
Business Analyst
Technical Analyst
Composition
Composition
Establishes the make-up of an entity
Hierarchical classification scheme based on the
breakdown of an entity into its constituent parts
A “Part-ology”
Examples
Content Object decomposition
Process decomposition
CMT Composition
Document
FrontMatter
BodyRear
MatterApproval
Review Testing Sign-off
Cardinality
Represents key cases
Avoids over-specification
• e.g., Min 1 Max 4
• These are constraints that
can, and should, be specified
separately (implementation detail)
Organization
How entities will appear
Process Flow
Movement of objects through process steps
CMT Relationships
One or more Zero or more
One Zero or one
Relationship Cardinality
FlowStart End
Order Choice
CMT in Action: A Simple Example
Business Needs
Document
IdentifyNeeds
Customer
DocumentRequirements
ProjectTeam
DraftRequirementsSpecification
Use Case Test CaseSystem
Constraint
RequirementsValidation
TestingTeam
PrototypingTechnicalProof of Concept
UsabilityTesting
BaselineRequirementsSpecification
Establish Project Requirements
• Different types of Actors shown: Customer, Project Team, Testing Team
• Content objects connect each process
• Decomposition shown for an object, a process & an actor
• Different cardinalities are shown:
optional, optional but repeatable, mandatory, mandatory and repeatable
Actors
Flow of
Responsibility
Process
Business
process model
Object
State Transition model
Selective Views of a CMT Model
CustomerProjectTeam
TestingTeam
IdentifyNeeds
DocumentRequirements
RequirementsValidation
Business Needs
Document
DraftRequirementsSpecification
BaselineRequirementsSpecification
Drilling Down into the Details
Business Needs
Document
IdentifyNeeds
Customer
DocumentRequirements
ProjectTeam
DraftRequirementsSpecification
Use Case Test CaseSystem
Constraint
RequirementsValidation
TestingTeam
PrototypingTechnicalProof of Concept
UsabilityTesting
BaselineRequirementsSpecification
Establish Project Requirements
Task Setup Task Steps Task Result
Test Setup Test Steps Test Result
IdentifyUncertainties
PlanExperiments
ConductExperiments
DocumentResults
Content Modelling Technique
Has been fashioned from numerous modelling precedents
Has been consciously tailored to align with common
features of content objects and processes
Has been stripped of as much visual detail as possible
so that CMT models can be used to communicate
with executive and business stakeholders
Has been designed to emphasize three relationship types
• Content type hierarchies
• Content composition
• Content processing
Reflections on Content Modelling Technique
Content Types
Identify atomic types
Establish familial
relationships between types
What types are specialized
examples of more general
types (facilitates processing)
Modelling Content Types
unitOfMeasure
uomSpan uomVoltageuomVelocity
mps fps kmph mph
Units of MeasureTaxonomy
Selective View of a DITA Task Specialized as a Test
stepsection
testStep
testtestBody testSetup
taskbody
task
step
Content Composition
Content assets are typically
described in terms of what
they contain
What they are made up of
Published information
products (documents)
are likewise composed
of content assets
assembled in a
specific order &
processed in a
specific way
Modelling Content Composition
Specialized DITA Step
testStep
testDataRef
note
cmd
testResult
choices
itemgroup
choicetable
info
stepxml
substeps
stepresultstep
Content Processing
Processes can be broken
down to as low a level of
detail as is necessary
Processes will encompass
business events (approvals),
tasks performed by people (writing),
and automated steps
(validations, transformations, transmittals,…)
Understanding the processes will ultimately
determine what level of detail must be modelled in
the content assets
Modelling Content Processes
Content processes frequently cross
organizational boundaries
- Suppliers
Provides a form of organizational
encapsulation
In this example, one actor (Prime) is responsible
for the project while other actors (Subs) are a
mechanism for performing a specific sub-process
Modelling Processes in Content Environments
SolutionImplementation
Project
PrimeContractor
PlanProject
IntegrateSolution
InitiateSolution
SupportSolution
Sub-Contractor
CoordinateSub-
ContractorProjects
Content Modelling Technique (CMT) offers
A simplified modelling notation that has been tailored to
modelling content & content processes
• Supports the all important engagement of non-technical stakeholders
Focuses on modelling three forms of relationship that are
critical to understanding content & content processes
• Content type hierarchies
• Content composition
• Content processing
Retains sufficient theoretical rigour to facilitate the
construction of content models precise enough to facilitate
the application of efficient & effective automation
Summary
Questions & Comments
Making Connections
Joe Gollner
Gnostyx Research Inc.
www.gnostyx.com
Twitter: @joegollner
Blog: The Content Philosopher
www.gollner.ca