DITA Emerging Trends and Best Practices: Practical Solutions for 2012 and Beyond

Our Presenters

JoAnn Hackos

President, Comtech Services Director, The Center for Information -Development Management Strategies for content management, development and organizational management, product interface design, customer studies, Web and traditional information architecture, and tools and technology selection Author of 7 books

“Introduction to DITA: A User Guide to the Darwin Information Typing Architecture”

Our Presenters

Chip Gettinger

• VP, XML Content Solutions at SDL

• Working with clients to improve customer experiences

• Adoption of DITA, Component Content Management (CCM) and dynamic delivery

• Adoption of product content maturity modeling

• cgettinger@sdl.com

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 4

• Increasing the value of your information

Since 1978, Comtech has provided outstanding services in five major areas:

• Content management solutions • Information management • Structured information design • Industry and user research • Education and training

We focus on the philosophy of managing content effectively –

• Business planning • Reuse strategies • Information architecture • User studies • Minimalism • Process redesign • Implementation planning • Leadership and change

management • Requirements development and

vendor selection • Publishing pipeline

development (DITA, XML)

The Comtech global team is led by Dr. JoAnn Hackos

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 5

A small sample of Comtech customers

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 6

Trends in Information Development: Communicating

in a Flat World

JoAnn T. Hackos, PhD President

Comtech Services Inc. The Center for Information-Development

Management (CIDM)

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 7

Information is vital

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 8

Global Organizations

• Information development organizations today face an increasingly challenging work environment • Multiple team located in-country and globally • Writers who are not native speakers of English • Isolated individuals • Remote managers • Mergers and acquisitions

adding new team members • Outsourcing and contracting

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 9

Enterprise Application

• Learning and training • Support services • Marketing

communications • Sales catalogs and e-

commerce • Human resources • Policies and procedures

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 10

Global Customers

• Information development organizations develop information for global customers • More customers with diverse

information requirements increasing the need for customized and personalized content

• More languages added to the localization portfolio

• Shorter time-to-market windows for content in multiple languages

• Co-branding of information products by partners and through mergers and acquisitions

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 11

Demanding Customers

• Customers demand information that quick and easy to find • Research at Symantec shows

that customers prefer topics to books in a ratio of 25 to 1

• Information must solve problems and help to reach their goals

• Multiple media on multiple devices are no longer optional

• Information that is out-of-date and inconsistent is no longer acceptable

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 12

Pressure to Reduce Costs

• Almost every information development organization today is under consider pressure to reduce costs and time and increase efficiency • Development life cycle • Translation • Time-to-market • Volume of content • Delivery methods (electronic vs

paper)

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 13

Changing Skill Set

• Information architecture

• Information design • Content

management • Technology

development • Localization

coordination • Customer studies

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 14

Changing Tool Set

• DITA information model • Advanced reuse strategies

• Content reference • Key reference • Conditional processing

and filtering • Project design and planning • Specialized information types

for • Learning and training • Semiconductor • Machine industry

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 15

Changing Personality Type

• Business-oriented, innovative, resourceful, enterprising, career-oriented

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 16

International Standards

• XML and semantic markup • OASIS DITA – Darwin Information Typing

Architecture • OASIS DocBook • OAXAL -- XLIFF, TMX, xml:tm (and other

localization standards) • ISO -- ISO/IEC 2651X

• IEEE -- P1063

• W3C

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 17

Disciplined Work Practices • Agile development methods with increased collaboration

among team members • Structured writing • Topic-based authoring • Content normalization to facilitate reuse • Minimalism • Controlled language • Conformance to specifications • Conformance to time and budget • Content accuracy and relevance to the user

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 18

Customer Expertise

• Customers are rapidly changing in how they access information

• Critical content has significant value to a product’s success

• Knowledge of how your customers use information is a key to recognition, appreciation, and success

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 19

Technical Proficiency

• A focus on writing alone is insufficient • A deeper understanding of a technical

discipline is key to maintaining credibility

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 20

Manufacturing Discipline

• Information development is no longer about individual creativity in writing

• Information development is fast becoming a manufacturing discipline requiring measurement to ensure the value created is commensurate with investment

• Information development exists in a competitive global environment

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 21

The Future Information Developer

• Political and business savvy • Innovation in design • Discipline in development • Expert in technology • Expert in the global

customer • Collaborative team member • Content curator • Highly resourceful and

assertive • Superior communication

abilities

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 22

To learn more …

• Comtech workshops (www.comtech-serv.com) • Minimalism, Content Management Strategies, User and Task

Analysis, Structured Writing, DITA for authors, Information Modeling

• DITA Boot Camp • Center for Information-Development Management

(www.infomanagementcenter.com) • Best Practices 2012 (Monterey CA) • Content Management Strategy/DITA North America 2012 (La

Jolla CA) • DITA Europe 2012 (TBD)

© 2010 Comtech Services, Inc. 1– 23

Reading Resources

• Content Management book • (www.comtech-serv.com/content_book.shtml)

• Introduction to DITA second edition • (www.comtech-serv.com/dita.shtml)

• Information Development book • (www.comtech-serv.com/info_develop.shtml)

• CIDM Best Practices bimonthly newsletter • CIDM Information Design monthly e-

newsletter

DITA Emerging Trends and Best Practices Chip Gettinger SDL VP, XML Solutions

Trends in Customer Expectations

Customer Expectations Are Changing With Regard to Technical Information

Signs of the times • At HP, customers buy more than

80% of their products without touching the product

• At one large software company, 18% of their customers want technical support on their Smartphone

• At another software company, customers are expecting more highly graphic and interactive documentation

• At a scientific instrumentation company, 80% of their customers download the documentation before buying

Engagement Ratio

Fully engaged customers are

23% more valuable to an organization in terms of profitability, revenue and relationship growth compared to the average customer. Source: Gallop

In one study, 65% of people surveyed said they wouldn’t come back to a website that did not provide satisfactory customer experience. Source: Forrester

Customer Experience Impacts

Aberdeen’s research indicates that companies creating documentation that is automatically customizable to various use-cases achieve a 39% increase in customer satisfaction scores and a 16% decrease in

inquiries made to customer support organizations. In both cases, this represents over twice the impact achieved by companies without this capability.

David Houlihan, Senior Research Associate, Product Content Management

Collaborating Across Silos

Thank You for Joining Us

Coming Attractions: DITA Webinars

Jan 24, 2012: 10am Pacific/1pm Eastern DITA Maturity Best Practices: An interview with a DITA Expert Details and Registration: www.sdl.com/events

Innovate

March 5 & 6 Santa Clara, CA Details and Registration: www.sdl.com/innovate

View recordings of all webinars in the DITA & the Global Customer

Experience webinar series www.sdl.com/en/xml/resources/recorded-webinars

Questions?