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Presented at CM Strategies / DITA North America 2013 in Providence RI The slides are a little dense for my taste but I tried to make them sufficiently self-explanatory to be useful on Slideshare. During the actual presentations, my on-stage antics are intended to shift the attention off the slides although the effectiveness of this strategy is open to debate. The delivery of this particular presentation was made a little more interesting with there being a security interruption that required the evacuation of the over-crowded room. Several attendees lauded the gratuitous use of literary, historical and cultural references - running the gambit from Dante and Virgil through to Lady Gaga. Some were in fact spontaneous and maybe even unconscious.
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The Joy of Reuse: Content, Structure & Solutions
CMS / DITA North America 2013
Joe Gollner, Gnostyx Research Inc.
Something of Myself @joegollner
The Content Philosopher
www.gollner.ca
Reuse and the Road to Sustainability
Content Reuse
Model Reuse
Standards Reuse
Solution Reuse
Technology Reuse
Infrastructure Reuse
Capability Reuse
Process Reuse
Knowledge Reuse
Resource Reuse
Fifty
Shades
of Reuse
Case Study: NATO
Case Study: iFixit.com
Reuse & Sustainability
Content Reuse: Single Sourcing
Maximization of Returns on Content Investment
Delivering content to all
consumer channels
• All users
• All devices
• All contexts
Driving business returns
Expanding revenue channels
Opening new markets
Feeding sales cycle
Enabling User Success
Benefits seen in user environment
DITA Reuse: Single Sourcing
DITA Publishing Framework
Provides a simple
implementation of the
single-sourcing model
• Maps facilitate selection,
ordering & contextualization
of source content
• Rendition processes of the
DITA Open Toolkit provide
reference output behaviour
Extensible Framework
Leveraging documented methods
Exploiting “openness” of standard & toolkit
Content Reuse: Source Optimization
Main Focus Area when considering “reuse”
Content Reuse enables
Elimination of content redundancy
• Often inexcusably high & expensive
Dramatically reduced globalization costs
Continuous revision & approval processes
• Increased concurrency of effort
• Collapsed cycle times
Increased work delegation options
• Within an organization (e.g., with subject matter experts)
• Across a supply chain of external providers
Re-organization of content around subject domain (product)
Case Study: Source Optimization in Action
Modular Equipment Content
40% - 70% content reduction
30% - 40% cycle time reduction
35% - 45% lifecycle cost reduction
Assembly
Assembly
InformationDescription Operation Service
Part Module
Diagram
Specification
Module
Diagram
Module
Maintenance Task
Unusual Condition
Physical
Functional
Abstract
Plan Acquire
Valid
ate
Localize
Valid
ate
Form
at
Valid
ate
Localize Optimized source contentmaximizes process concurrency
Legacy processes operate in a sequential model that transitions work at the deliverable level
Optimized source content
Non-optimized source content
Acquire
Localize
Valid
ateForm
at
Plan
Valid
ate
DITA Reuse: Source Optimization
DITA provides a
grounded method for
implementing
Topic Orientation
Encourages a specific
approach with type
hierarchy
Flexibility exists to
introduce other approaches to Topic Orientation
DITA provides mechanisms for tackling challenges
Evolving approaches to effectively identifying, qualifying &
referencing topics where high levels of reuse are pursued
More on DITA & Source Optimization
DITA Metrics 101
by Mark Lewis
Assembles the work that Mark has been
doing for several years on helping
organizations quantify the savings
they can realize through DITA-based
source content reuse.
See: http://DITAMetrics101.com
Also available: Spreadsheet Templates
See short review at:
http://www.gollner.ca/2013/04/the-joy-of-reuse.html
Model Reuse
Common Content Patterns
have received repeated treatment
Troubleshooting information
Reference data
Procedural instructions
New Projects can benefit
by leveraging existing patterns
Analysis studies gap between legacy content & patterns
DITA offers a range of content patterns
DITA extensibility allows other patterns to be imported
Especially useful for leveraging specialist domains
Standards Reuse
Standards best seen as:
Distilled best practices
broadly adapted & applied
within a specific sector
As a toolbox
from which models & practices
can be reused & to which
improvements can be contributed
Standards less
usefully seen as:
Prescriptions
to be obeyed
Universal
solutions
Solution Reuse
A Content Solution:
the Combination of Content with Behaviour
Tangible for business stakeholders
The level at which investment decisions
are made & returns are realized
Reusable Solution Components
Allow capabilities to be explored & evaluated
Can be combined to realize larger benefits
Demand openness
• Accessible interfaces
• Adaptable functionality
• Modular independence of content topics & application components
Technology Reuse
Componentization of Tools
Trend in Hardware & Software
“Best-of-breed” components
assembled to address
requirements
The technology counterpart to
topic orientation of content
Content Solution Strategy
Encourages exploitation of new technical capabilities
as they emerge in the marketplace
Encourages competition among candidate technologies
• Continuous pressure maintained as replacement is always possible
Infrastructure Reuse
Leverage the Old
as well as the New
Exploiting available
technology can be key
in many organizations
• Reduces start-up costs
• Levels out the transition
process for both business
& IT stakeholders
• Recovers returns from
past investments
• Helps ground innovations in established practices
(frequently providing as many positives as negatives)
N.B. Depends on the separation of content from behaviour
Capability Reuse
The Capabilities of People
Will be an organization’s most
expensive & valuable asset
Reuse Strategy
should facilitate:
Tapping legacy capabilities
based on historical practices
Building new competencies
to support new practices
Engaging a new generation of employees & suppliers
Solution openness enables adaptable user interfaces
Adapting to fit into each user’s context & capabilities
Process Reuse
Business Process
Management Innovation
Driven by needs for improved
• Supplier integration
• Regulatory compliance
• Management accountability
Process Reuse
Enables business agility
• Adopt, adapt & share best practices
• Outsource / insource as needed
Facilitates alignment across “loosely connected” partners
Externalizes knowledge hidden in the process
Knowledge Reuse
Structured Approach
to Solution Reuse
Establishes traceability
across reused content topics
& application components
• Linking research to results
• Enabling the bi-directional,
end-to-end flow of data
• Establishes “Authority Network”
substantiating decisions
& actions
• Essential for systematic &
continuous improvement
True Knowledge Management
Resource Reuse
Focus on Investment Optimization
Minimize the investments needed
to achieve similar or superior ends
• Reduce capital requirements
• Reduce Operating &
Maintenance costs
Maximize returns on investments
• Accelerate realization of returns
• Generate multiple returns
from each investment
• Enable new content reuse arrangements with partners
Minimize risks associated with abrupt financial changes
Maximize level of value-added investment vs overhead
Reuse and Sustainability
True Sustainability
Depends directly
on the efficiency,
maintainability
& adaptability of
solutions
A Reuse Strategy
is fundamental to achieving these goals in any solution
• Only solutions refactored at all levels will be truly sustainable
• Content, Models, Standards, Components, Technology,
Infrastructure, Capability, Processes, Knowledge and Resources
• Only solutions adhering to this architectural guideline can be
maintained and adapted in a way that permits evolution over time
• Only these solutions will survive serious environmental shocks
Case Study: iFixit.com
Open Manuals
Innovative
business
model
• Provide free manuals
• Sell tools & parts
Mission
• Empowering people to fix
their own hardware
• Facilitating a
responsible &
sustainable
lifecycle model
for consumer goods
The Joy of Reuse
Reuse
as a
State
of Mind
Lacrimae rerum – Tears in Things
Virgil Aeneid Book I
A range of translations
and interpretations
have been offered for
Sunt Lacrimae rerum
with “There are Tears
in Things” being my
choice. As builders,
the Romans appreciated
the price people pay to
make things that last…
Sustaining Connections
Joe Gollner
Gnostyx Research Inc.
www.gnostyx.com
Twitter: @joegollner
Blog: The Content Philosopher
www.gollner.ca
