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This presentation delivered by Noz Urbina at the Documentation and Training West 2008 conference (www.doctrain.com) in Vancouver, BC. The world is becoming more and more tech-savvy by the picosecond. More savvy means more demanding! Today organizations need to juggle management of customer-generated content, maximize the use of cross-departmental contributions, and still deliver quality technical communication products to their user base. This presentation takes a low-tech, cross-industry look at why strategies are changing and how organizations are adapting (or not!) to these challenges.
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Living Multiple Lives: The New Technical Communicator
Noz UrbinaBusiness Development Manager
Agenda
~ The world today – Do more with less, faster and better– Reuse, reuse, reuse!
~ Methodologies for change– Organisational and process review– Componentisation / DITA / XML– CCMS
~ “Customers are demanding more concise communication on how to produce, service, maintain and use products that are only increasing in complexity.
~ Despite this fact, executives are shortening schedules and tightening budgets.”
The Market Today
- Aberdeen Research
Customer OverviewExample Products Model Staff
Aero/Defense Custom fit aerospace and defense equipment
Biz-to-Biz ~?
Microelectronic1
Microchips for Biz-to-Consumer market
Biz-to-Biz ~200
Microelectronic2
Microchips for various markets applications
Biz-to-Biz ~55000
High Tech Manufacturing
Modular precision control drive units
Biz-to-Biz ~2000
Medical Medical equipment and software
Biz-to-Biz ~3000
Software Corporate and Security hw / sw
Biz-to-Biz/Biz-to-Consumer
~300
Consumer Electronics
Multifunction Nav for leisure boats
Biz-to-Consumer ~1000
Automotive Luxury Cars Biz-to-Consumer ~2000
Situation OverviewCustomer Supply
Chain Needs
Configs HW / SW
Variants by Apps/ Platform
Variants by Market
Langs
A+D Y 0
Micro1 Y Y Y Y 0
Micro2 Y Y Y Y 0
High Tech Y Y Y Y Y 4
Medical Y Y Y Y Y 4
Software Y Y Y Y 5
Consumer Elec Y Y Y 10
Auto Y Y Y 8
Everyone duplicates content…~ Product to related product~ Product to derivative product~ Across all products (global legal and
boilerplate texts, images)~ Across product lifecycle and document
types:– Design Specs– Testing Specs– Public Documentation
~ Across formats:– Print / web / other
~ Multiple live versions of the same content
MKT REQS
Output (PDF)Design Objectives Spec
Product Design Spec
Product Desc
Feature List
abcdef
abcdef
abcdef
abcdef
Introduction(Feature summary)
Feature Description
Feature Description
Legal
Product OverviewDescription
Product Requirement Description
Internal Documentation
DIAG
DIAG
DIAG
ProductIMAGE
External Documentation
Database
Features & Description (Web)
Product Desc
Feature List
ProductIMAGE
Reuse / Reformat_
_Reuse / _Rewrite_
_Reuse / _Rewrite_
Product Requirement Description
Product Requirement Description
Product Description
Product Feature Description
Product Feature Description
Product Feature Description
EXISTINGCONTENT
abcdef
abcdef
abcdef
Reuse / Add
Reuse
/ Add
Procedure Description
Procedure Description
Reference Data
Reference Data
Duplication in a Product’s LifeCycle
Errors get reused downstream. Corrections don’t flow back upstream…
Duplication Across Products
Extensive Reuse
Product Specific
Multiple Live Versions
Errors get reused across products. Related products don’t get updated…especially across templates
Reused content should sometimes be different versions. We need to know what’s applicable where
1.0 1.1 1.2
Customer Specific
Customer 1 Customer 2
Every problem described here is multiplied again in customer-specific documents
Censored Censored Censored
Document Overload
Customer-specific…
Common findings
~ Often many more “customers” than management comprehends
~ Most teams don’t have or don’t take time to assess what their audience really wants – internally and externally
~ Reuse of development-time assets is funded and supported
~ Information access and collaboration with people can be as, or more important than, creation or publishing
~ Integration with their workflows is key
~ Reuse (modularisation) isn’t easy
What does it all mean?
How do I deal with it?
Aberdeen Research
Technical Communicators
~ “Those that were once called authors are now called technical communicators, creating an entirely new profession.“
- Aberdeen Research
Becoming a “Communicator”
~ Handle overload by bridging the knowledge gap between teams– Survey your different content consumers – profile their
needs– Re-build your workflows for new work-sharing methods
(especially for modular content)
~ Break out of the “manual” box– Survey the new game-changing technologies
~ “Develop and design instructional and informational tools~ Combine multimedia knowledge and strong communication
skills with technical expertise to educate entire spectrum across the of users’ abilities” (Aberdeen)
~ WIKIs, Blogs, Forums, Bi-Directional Publishing Workflows, Code Comment Extraction, Agile Project Methodologies, etc.
~ Establish a business-driven strategy
Survey Content Consumers
Example
Establishing a Strategy
Early Decisions
–Needs first, tools last–Develop use cases to determine if XML is
the right answer for you~Reuse of data~Specialized outputs~Device independence
–Paradigm shift~Avoid migrating your old problems to XML~Opportunity to streamline processes
[slide by Jody Bookless, Annette Marx, Scott Davis, AutoDESK]
DITA Process Model- Courtesy of IBM
Goal- Oriented Business Scenario
- Michael Priestley, Lead DITA Architect, IBM
TopicsBuild Maps
Outputs
Eclipse Help
Java Help
HTML Help
Web pages
Books & PDFs
Learning
Write Content
Define ALL Topics
Build Documents
Multi-channel Publish
Think: “What’s in it for them?”
~ To Finance and R&D: – Typically, Engineers spend 15-30% of time on:
~ Req Docs, Specifications, Design Docs, and so on…~ If 100 Engineers cost 40k each, ~600k is spent on Engineering-
internal Docs / (15% of 4 million)~ Saving 20% off develop-time docs would save 120k / year
– Localisation costs are a huge problem~ XML alone often reduces costs by 15-30%, and well over 50%
can be achieved when combined with reuse
~ To Tech Docs, Training, and Engineering Management:– Search, reuse, automation and collaboration are all Engineering goals
too – With a shared platform and process, you could accelerate product
time-to-market and quality of service
~ To Tech Docs, Training, and Engineering Management:– Engineers don’t want to spend time on documents. Use this as
ammunition. – More computer-aided reuse means less nagging and conference calls– Industry figures show 30-50% savings in Docs is not unusual,
meaning 6 authors can usually justify 100K solution
~ Europe’s Largest XML eventCCMS – DITA - S1000D
~ 2008 - Delivering on the XML Promise: Customer-Centric Communication
– How does it all affect the customer?
~ Free workshops– Information Architecture and Taxonomy
(Mekon / Rockley Group)– S1000D (PTC)– Adobe Technical Communications Tools
(Adobe)– Building Dynamic Publications (EMC x-hive)
~ Tracks– Manufacturing and Software– Aerospace Defence– DITA and IA– Gov and Professional Pubs
~ Speakers– JoAnn Hackos, ComTech – John Hunt, IBM/DITA Learning and
Training Chair– Charles Cooper, Rockley Group– Chris Wood, BAE– Denny Raitz, Boeing– Amber Swope, JustSystems, DITA
Technical Committee– many more…
~ Learn from– SAP/Business Objects– Cambridge Silicon Radio– Qimonda AG– Salesforce.com– UK National Archives– Boeing– more…
www.x-pubs.com
www.x-pubs.com
Thank you!