Content is data: pushing re-use to the limit

© 2011 IBM Corporation

Content is data: pushing re-use to the limit.

Dr. Adrian R Warman



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Agenda

Introduction Technical content and enterprise data Real world examples Re-use: panacea or problem? Controlling re-use Best practices Conclusions



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Introduction

Who am I?

– Dr. Adrian R. Warman Where do I work?

– Hursley Park, WinchesterIBM United Kingdom Limited

How can you contact me?

– Tel: +44-1962-819176

– Email: [email protected]

– Google+:Adrian Warman

What do I do?

– Information Architect

Disclaimer

– Any views or opinions expressed in this presentation are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent official positions, strategies or opinions of International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation.

– No guarantees are offered as to the timeliness, accuracy or validity of information presented.

Acknowledgement

– Clip art used in this presentation is from the Open Clip Art Libraryhttp://www.openclipart.org/



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Terminology: Re-use



Technical content and enterprise-level data

Most organizations depend on 'scalable' repositories:

– Database content.

– Development source code.

– Standard tools / applications / spreadsheets.

– Documentation. They provide a single 'go-to' location for organizational material.

– Reduces duplication.

– Helps with version management. Provides an opportunity:

– Technical content created and stored for one purpose might be re-used for another purpose.

• Manuals / guides.

• Training materials.

• Product literature.

– Especially if it can be accessed through a 'portable' format: XML or SQL.



Real world examples

Many 'personalized' documents. Pharmaceuticals. GIS. Product development

– Software, in particular

But ….



Re-use: panacea or problem?

Does re-use scale?

– An example. Suggestion: Recognize that solving one problem introduces another. Suggestion: Distinguish between re-using and re-purposing.



Controlling re-use

Rockley [http://www.rockley.com/TheRockleyReport/V1I3/Information%20Architecture.htm] identifies four ways of controlling re-use:

– Opportunistic reuse

– Systematic reuse

– Nested reuse

– Workflow Suggestion: Think about the distinction between controlling re-use and managing re-

purposing.



Best practices 1

Identify re-purposing 'dimensions'. Be cautious about adding dimensions. Think about whether you are really re-purposing, or simply sharing. Is the content Factual?

– Static, resilient, rarely changes.

– Good candidate for re-purposing [Green flag][Green flag]. Is the content Editorial?

– Definitive, highly variable between re-purposing dimensions, but static within the dimension.

– Possible candidate for re-purposing [Amber flag][Amber flag]. Is the content Opinion?

– Sales, marketing, highly variable.

– Poor candidate for re-purposing [Red flag][Red flag]. Can you isolate and so push content from Opinion → Editorial → Factual?



Best practices 2

Identify / acquire / implement tooling to help manage re-purposing.

– For all but the simplest scenarios, management is more important than enablingre-purposing.

Identifying factors:

– Ability to 'collapse' instances of re-purposing.

– Support for 'Test Driven Documentation'.

– Support for metadata rationalization (managing the dimensions).

– Links with software source code management

• In particular, for merging changes.



Best practices 3



Conclusions

Basically, re-use / re-purposing is an important technique. In a short-term, small-scale case, it can and does save time and effort.

– But don't equate small number of re-purposing dimensions with small number of content files.

Increasing the number of re-purposing dimensions will, by definition, introduce complexities to be managed.

– They increase the time and effort required to perform all documentation tasks.

– They enable errors.

– They can be extremely difficult to remove. Be aware of the risks.

– Have processes / tools in place to help you detect scaling issues.

– As you hit a pain point, think about the number of re-purposing dimensions. Use this as an early warning flag for 'next time'.

A small change early can avoid a big change later.

Content is data: pushing re-use to the limit

Technology

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