Topic-based authoring is the most cost-effective way to develop content in the "Do more with less" world we live in. It can help reduce localization costs, reduce project schedules, and help you better meet the needs of your users. It's a potential win/win for your company and your users. Makes you want to jump right in, doesn't it?
But moving to topic-based authoring can be one of the most expensive things you've ever done. In this talk, Sharon Burton will show you the top 10 mistakes made by companies and how you can avoid them. These mistakes can include missing deadlines, delivering poor quality content, or not integrating this content development strategy into the rest of the product development strategy.
If you're thinking about making this move, you'll learn what not to do; if you made the move and you're struggling, find out how to solve your problems. Either way, you really can't afford to miss this vendor-neutral discussion!
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10 mistakes when you move to topic-based authoring
1. 10 mistakes when
moving to topic-based
authoring
Sharon Burton
E-mail: Sharon@sharonburton.com
Twitter: Sharonburton
We’ll start at 3 minutes after the hour
Make sure your sound is working
Twitter: #10MistakesTBA
2. 10 mistakes when
moving to topic-based
authoring
Twitter: #10MistakesTBASharon Burton
E-mail: Sharon@sharonburton.com
Twitter: Sharonburton
3. Thank you for attending!
▪ Sharon Burton
▪ I solve post-sales customer experience
problems
▪ Research how people feel about product
instructions
▪ Support clients in creating better product
instructions and improve the customer
experience
▪ Teach communication at various universities
Twitter: #10MistakesTBA
4. Supporting role today…
▪ DCL is supporting us today
▪ If you have questions, they will help you in the questions
window
▪ Let’s say “Thank you” to Data Conversion
Laboratory for hosting this webinar
Twitter: #10MistakesTBA
5. Experience the DCL Difference
▪ DCL blends years of conversion experience with
cutting-edge technology and the infrastructure to
make the conversion process easy and efficient.
▪ World-Class Services
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▪ US-Based Management
▪ Complex-Content Expertise
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6. Valuable ContentTransformed
▪ Document Digitization
▪ XML and HTML Conversion
▪ eBook Production
▪ Hosted Solutions
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▪ Harmonizer
10. Definition
▪ Topic-based authoring is a modular content creation approach
(popular in the technical publications and documentation arenas) that
supports XML content reuse, content management, and makes the
dynamic assembly of personalized information possible.
▪ A topic is a discrete piece of content that is about a specific subject, has
an identifiable purpose, and can stand alone (does not need to be
presented in context for the end-user to make sense of the content).
▪ Topics are also reusable.They can, when constructed properly
(without reliance on other content for its meaning), be reused in
any context anywhere needed.
▪ The Darwin InformationTyping Architecture (DITA) is a standard
designed to help authors create topic-based content.The standard is
managed by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured
Information Standards (OASIS) DITATechnical Committee.
FromWikipedia
Twitter: #10MistakesTBA
11. What isTopic-basedAuthoring?
▪ Focuses effort on the information your user needs to
use the product
▪ Develop a body of information that’s helpful to the user
▪ Maximize content reuse
▪ Roughly similar to structuring an online help system
▪ People who’ve developed a lot of help “get” these concepts
faster
▪ If you are moving to DITA, it’s part of the trip
▪ But you don’t have to move to DITA to make use of this
information development method
▪ This can be a destination as well as a rest stop
12. What isTopic-basedAuthoring?
▪ Topics are small, perhaps ½ to 4 printed pages
▪ Perhaps smaller
▪ Only include the information needed to
▪ Perform one procedure
▪ Understand one concept
▪ Topics can be (re)combined
▪ New products, deliverables, or other ways
▪ Topics are easier to update
▪ Easier and cheaper to get approval for updating topics from
management
▪ Depending on deliverables, push updated topics to your
users
Twitter: #10MistakesTBA
14. Library
What isTopic-basedAuthoring?
Admin Guide
• About Users
• Adding Users
• Deleting Users
• Setting
Permissions
• About Reports
• Creating Reports
• Editing Reports
• Saving Reports
• Printing Reports
• Importing Reports
Programmers Guide
• About
Programming
• About Objects
• Placing Objects
• About
Containment
• Objects and
Inheritance
• Using Container
Objects
• Customizing
Objects
• Relating Objects
Getting Started
• About Users
• About Reports
• About
Programming
• About Objects
• About
Containment
• Exporting Objects
• About Schedules
Twitter: #10MistakesTBA
15. What are the mistakes?
How to mess this up
Twitter: #10MistakesTBA
16. 1: Not getting buy-in
Management and
other teams need
to understand
why this is better
and you have to
show that.
Maybe a business
case?
▪ This is not going to be an
instant and dramatic
improvement
▪ Except localization
▪ Costs may drop immediately
▪ Schedules may be impacted
▪ Less content can be scary
17. 2: Using the same tools
AskingTechwr-l
what they use
and buying that
not the answer.
What are your
business
problems and
what are your
pain points?
▪ The tools that got you into this
mess are probably not the
tools to get you out
▪ Evaluate what your content
and business needs are, now
and in the future
▪ Work with the vendors and a
consultant to make sure what
you need is what they can do
18. 3: Using the same processes
The processes for
developing,
editing, and
publishing a 200
page manual
won’t work.
▪ Developing topic-based
content is different
▪ Topics “stand alone” on
content and/or formatting
▪ Topics are reviewed as they
are ready
▪ Review process must change
▪ Maybe use a special review
product
19. 4: Not training people
Not training sets
up projects and
people for failure.
You can’t expect
people to
magically know.
▪ New tools + new process =
training
▪ Training provides more than
how to use the product
▪ Includes best practices for our
workflow
▪ Identifies the changes for our
workflow
▪ Instantiates how we do what we
do in the new workflow
20. 5: Not planning the move
You can’t jump on
your horse and
ride off in all
directions.
Analyze what you
have before you
decide what you
have
▪ Your legacy content is not going
to fit neatly
▪ It’s at least not well
written/structured/ organized
▪ Especially if you had a lot of
contractors, the legacy content
has been around a long time, and
so on
▪ This can be very hard on the staff
▪ People want their content to be
the exception
▪ It’s special content, not like other
content and needs special
attention
21. 6: Not using writing guidelines
We must have
good writing
standards in
place.
▪ Before we can start thinking
about moving to topic-based
authoring
▪ And gaining the benefits thereof
▪ Content reuse demands
consistent writing standards
▪ The content can appear in many
places
▪ In more than one deliverable
▪ Everyone cannot write in
“their style”
22. 7: Slicing content according to
headings
Because most
tools allow you to
import and slice
your legacy
content based on
headings, it can
feel like you’re
done after you
import.
▪ That’s step #1 of x and x is
bigger than 2
▪ Now you need to think about
▪ Content types
▪ Content reuse
▪ Smaller topics
▪ Embedded topics (snippets)
▪ Localization
▪ Outputs
▪ Devices
▪ More
23. 8: Not reusing content
Writing content is
expensive.
Re-creating
existing content
is very expensive.
Localizing similar
but different is
super expensive.
▪ You can’t reuse what you can’t
find
▪ Opportunistic reuse
▪ People remember this content
from before
▪ Maybe they can find it
▪ Big time sink
▪ Systematic reuse
▪ The system knows this content has
been written previously
▪ Prompts the writer for reuse
▪ Tracks reuse and reports it
24. 9: Not considering audience
Identify your
audience and
their schemas.
Identify their
domains of
knowledge.
69% of your users
are intermediate
level.
▪ Your users are not stupid
▪ They know their jobs
▪ Most users are intermediate
users
25. 10:Thinking this is simple
Your legacy
content is not
going to fit neatly
in content
categories.
▪ It won’t take any time to figure
this out
▪ We can do this as we need to
▪ We’ll hire an intern to do it
▪ We can meet deadlines while
we completely restructure all
our content
▪ We just need some templates
26. 11: (Bonus) We don’t need to worry
about Localization
Always act like
you’re going to
localize and
nothing bad
will happen to
you.
▪ If you are not localizing now,
you will be in the future
▪ If you are localizing now, you
know how complicated it can
be
▪ Someone will decide to add
more languages
▪ Because that’s not a problem,
right?
27. 12: (Additional Bonus) Buying a tool
and then calling the consultant
New tools always
change the
workflow.Choose
the tool that
supports the
content and
business
workflow you
need.
▪ All tools are not created equal
▪ Choosing the wrong tools
wastes a lot of time and
money
▪ It can also sink the initiative
▪ Don’t be afraid to spend the
right amount of money to do
this correctly
29. Good resources
▪ My website:
sharonburton.com
▪ Enterprise Content Strategy
by Kevin Nichols. XML Press.
(Just came out!)
▪ Single Sourcing: Building
Modular Documentation
by KurtAment
▪ ISBN-10: 0815514913 or ISBN-
13: 978-0815514916
▪ Content Strategy 101:
TransformTechnical Content
into a Business Asset
by Sarah S. O'Keefe andAlan
S. Pringle
ISBN-10: 0982811845 or ISBN-
13: 978-0982811849
▪ Content Strategy: Connecting
the dots between business,
brand, and benefits
by Rahel Anne Bailie and Noz
Urbina
ISBN-10: 1937434168 or ISBN-
13: 978-1937434168
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Additional services also include
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Content Reuse Analysis
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Consulting
Transcription
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