Copyright © Joe Gollner 2015

Joe Gollner | @joegollner

DITA: What’s it Good For?

What does Managementcare about, really?

What do they value?

What do they notice?

What gets them excited?

DITA must be positionedwith the answers to these questions in mind

1. Utility

2. Agility

3. Productivity

4. Quality

5. Manageability

Looking at DITA from the Perspective of Management

Thinkabout:

Utility

What Matters to Management?

In a nutshell:

Immediate positive contributiontowards key performance goals

In truth, it is rare for management to notice anything else

Helping people (customers) to perform intended tasks• Find & purchase a product

• Use & recommend a product

• Maintain & update a product

• Upgrade & extend a product

Quickly & efficiently

Utility: The first thing Content must do – Be Useful!

Utility: Content as a (Customer) Service

DITAContent

BusinessProposals

Sales

Collateral& CaseStudies

Marketing

Docs &Knowledge

Base ArticlesSupport

eLearningCourses & Tests

Training Ke

y Ex

tern

al S

take

ho

lde

r To

uch

Po

ints

Agility

The Utility of Content demands Content Agility

Content can be delivered when, where, & how it is needed• All Channels simultaneously

• Dynamically adapted to be useful in all channels & across all channels

DITA content can be• Easily grouped into new Outputs

• Automatically published into all necessary formats

DITA provides this Agility with an open & adaptable approach

Agility: How Content can be useful in all situations

Case Study

Software company

Chief Operating Officer (COO)had blocked allDITA initiatives

Operational issues traced to weak communications

The Pitch

20 minute window with COO

A “no-jargon” zone

Modernization unavoidable

Leveraging a best practice initiated by IBM was OK

Agility: Outmaneuver Management Resistance

Productivity

Productivity is a function of:

Maximizing returns

while

Minimizing costs

DITA provides key “levers”

Optimizes Reuse• Minimizes localization costs

• Minimizes update costs

Emphasizes Automation• Minimizes publishing costs

Leverages shared community investments & learning• Minimizes implementation costs

Productivity: Maximizing the Return on Content Assets

Productivity improvementsare “table stakes”

Large enterprises have setevaluation & approval rules

Individual managementstakeholders will be interestedin improvements that help them

Important Caveat

Organizations are much less rational than they pretend

Executives need to become excited to be genuinely useful

Productivity: Return on Content (RoC)

Quality

Quality has been a widely used justification for DITA

Integration of Outputs with all relevant data sources is great

Unfortunately, it rarely grabs or holds management attention

Quality minimizes key risks• Non-compliance

• Threats to user safety

• Customer dissatisfaction

• Damage to brand image

All important but all are “contingent liabilities”as opposed to immediate problems

Quality: Perfecting Outputs & Avoiding Problems

Nana Gollner

Prima Ballerina

Quality is the long game

Hard work & attention to detail

Proves itself in performance

Starts small & builds… like DITA

Quality: Nana Gollner and DITA

Nana Gollner -the little girl with polio who became one of the great dancers of the 20th Century

Manageability

Economy of effort & the integration of investments

This does make sense to better managers

Important pieces

Measurability

Asset control & protection

Really important piecesAlignment with market

Alignment with community

Alignment of business activities

Alignment of investments

Alignment of user experiences

Manageability: Economy of Effort, Integration, Alignment

Integrate or Outsource

The secret fact of organizational life

All content investments must

Integrate data sources in a way that makes them useful and compelling

Integrate communication activities that span & connect different business units

Deliver content assets that can be reused across different business activities

Deliver improvements to how external stakeholders achieve their goals

Management: Integrated Content Management

Selling DITA to Management

Demonstrate what is possible

If Utility is a hot button, you need to push it

Show how information can be made• Accessible in many formats

• Easily findable & usable

• Precisely targeted to specific needs

• Let’s say it….sexy

This really shows how agility drives utility

Sooth Management Concerns• DITA is an industry movement

• Lowest cost way to achieve goals

• Lowest risk way to modernize tools

• DITA helps to integrate content activities

Sell DITA by Demonstrating Utility

Showtime

A Public Domain Collection of DITA instances that can be:

Used to demonstrate the key benefits of DITA to Management• Functionally realistic

• Based on real content sources

• Exhibits real-world details

• Supports realistic scenarios

• Realism is critically important when engaging management

• They must see how DITA can tangibly improve things today

Adapted to meet Demo needs

Collectively enhanced

Showtime: A DITA Demonstration Data Set

Showtime: Integrated Content Services

Scenario:

ThunderbirdContent delivery

>> PDF

>> ePub

>> WebHelp

>> MobileHelp

>> MS Word

Thunderbird DITA Demonstration Content

A functionally realistic

set of demonstration

DITA instances

Thunderbird Stormcluster

software documentation

Showtime: DITA Sales Pitch

Scenario:

AlfrescoDITA Pitch

>> PDF

>> ePub

>> WebHelp

>> MobileHelp

>> MS Word

Alfresco DITA Demonstration ScenarioRapid update of the collection

to reflect an alternative identity

Images and product

name variables adapted

to tailor the demo to a

given organization.

Position DITA against the key Management Perspectives

Utility

Agility

Productivity

Quality

Manageability

All of these are importantbut emphasis today falls on:

Utility: Content as a Service

Agility: Outmaneuver obstacles

Manageability: content integration

Realistic Demo Content Helps!

DITA: What’s it good for?

Connections

Joe GollnerManaging DirectorGnostyx Research Inc.www.gnostyx.comjag@gnostyx.com

Twitter: @joegollner

Blog:The Content Philosopherwww.gollner.ca

Questions

https://github.com/gnostyx/dita-demo-content-collection

Use – Modify – Augment

Raw materials for building compelling demonstrations