Living Multiple Lives: The New Technical Communicator

Noz UrbinaBusiness Development Manager

Agenda

~ The world today – Do more with less, faster and better– Reuse, reuse, reuse!

~ Methodologies for change– Organisational and process review– Componentisation / DITA / XML– CCMS

~ “Customers are demanding more concise communication on how to produce, service, maintain and use products that are only increasing in complexity.

~ Despite this fact, executives are shortening schedules and tightening budgets.”

The Market Today

- Aberdeen Research

Customer OverviewExample Products Model Staff

Aero/Defense Custom fit aerospace and defense equipment

Biz-to-Biz ~?

Microelectronic1

Microchips for Biz-to-Consumer market

Biz-to-Biz ~200

Microelectronic2

Microchips for various markets applications

Biz-to-Biz ~55000

High Tech Manufacturing

Modular precision control drive units

Biz-to-Biz ~2000

Medical Medical equipment and software

Biz-to-Biz ~3000

Software Corporate and Security hw / sw

Biz-to-Biz/Biz-to-Consumer

~300

Consumer Electronics

Multifunction Nav for leisure boats

Biz-to-Consumer ~1000

Automotive Luxury Cars Biz-to-Consumer ~2000

Situation OverviewCustomer Supply

Chain Needs

Configs HW / SW

Variants by Apps/ Platform

Variants by Market

Langs

A+D Y 0

Micro1 Y Y Y Y 0

Micro2 Y Y Y Y 0

High Tech Y Y Y Y Y 4

Medical Y Y Y Y Y 4

Software Y Y Y Y 5

Consumer Elec Y Y Y 10

Auto Y Y Y 8

Everyone duplicates content…~ Product to related product~ Product to derivative product~ Across all products (global legal and

boilerplate texts, images)~ Across product lifecycle and document

types:– Design Specs– Testing Specs– Public Documentation

~ Across formats:– Print / web / other

~ Multiple live versions of the same content

MKT REQS

Output (PDF)Design Objectives Spec

Product Design Spec

Product Desc

Feature List

abcdef

abcdef

abcdef

abcdef

Introduction(Feature summary)

Feature Description

Feature Description

Legal

Product OverviewDescription

Product Requirement Description

Internal Documentation

DIAG

DIAG

DIAG

ProductIMAGE

External Documentation

Database

Features & Description (Web)

Product Desc

Feature List

ProductIMAGE

Reuse / Reformat_

_Reuse / _Rewrite_

_Reuse / _Rewrite_

Product Requirement Description

Product Requirement Description

Product Description

Product Feature Description

Product Feature Description

Product Feature Description

EXISTINGCONTENT

abcdef

abcdef

abcdef

Reuse / Add

Reuse

/ Add

Procedure Description

Procedure Description

Reference Data

Reference Data

Duplication in a Product’s LifeCycle

Errors get reused downstream. Corrections don’t flow back upstream…

Duplication Across Products

Extensive Reuse

Product Specific

Multiple Live Versions

Errors get reused across products. Related products don’t get updated…especially across templates

Reused content should sometimes be different versions. We need to know what’s applicable where

1.0 1.1 1.2

Customer Specific

Customer 1 Customer 2

Every problem described here is multiplied again in customer-specific documents

Censored Censored Censored

Document Overload

Customer-specific…

Common findings

~ Often many more “customers” than management comprehends

~ Most teams don’t have or don’t take time to assess what their audience really wants – internally and externally

~ Reuse of development-time assets is funded and supported

~ Information access and collaboration with people can be as, or more important than, creation or publishing

~ Integration with their workflows is key

~ Reuse (modularisation) isn’t easy

What does it all mean?

How do I deal with it?

Aberdeen Research

Technical Communicators

~ “Those that were once called authors are now called technical communicators, creating an entirely new profession.“

- Aberdeen Research

Becoming a “Communicator”

~ Handle overload by bridging the knowledge gap between teams– Survey your different content consumers – profile their

needs– Re-build your workflows for new work-sharing methods

(especially for modular content)

~ Break out of the “manual” box– Survey the new game-changing technologies

~ “Develop and design instructional and informational tools~ Combine multimedia knowledge and strong communication

skills with technical expertise to educate entire spectrum across the of users’ abilities” (Aberdeen)

~ WIKIs, Blogs, Forums, Bi-Directional Publishing Workflows, Code Comment Extraction, Agile Project Methodologies, etc.

~ Establish a business-driven strategy

Survey Content Consumers

Example

Establishing a Strategy

Early Decisions

–Needs first, tools last–Develop use cases to determine if XML is

the right answer for you~Reuse of data~Specialized outputs~Device independence

–Paradigm shift~Avoid migrating your old problems to XML~Opportunity to streamline processes

[slide by Jody Bookless, Annette Marx, Scott Davis, AutoDESK]

DITA Process Model- Courtesy of IBM

Goal- Oriented Business Scenario

- Michael Priestley, Lead DITA Architect, IBM

TopicsBuild Maps

Outputs

Eclipse Help

Java Help

HTML Help

Web pages

Books & PDFs

Learning

Write Content

Define ALL Topics

Build Documents

Multi-channel Publish

Think: “What’s in it for them?”

~ To Finance and R&D: – Typically, Engineers spend 15-30% of time on:

~ Req Docs, Specifications, Design Docs, and so on…~ If 100 Engineers cost 40k each, ~600k is spent on Engineering-

internal Docs / (15% of 4 million)~ Saving 20% off develop-time docs would save 120k / year

– Localisation costs are a huge problem~ XML alone often reduces costs by 15-30%, and well over 50%

can be achieved when combined with reuse

~ To Tech Docs, Training, and Engineering Management:– Search, reuse, automation and collaboration are all Engineering goals

too – With a shared platform and process, you could accelerate product

time-to-market and quality of service

~ To Tech Docs, Training, and Engineering Management:– Engineers don’t want to spend time on documents. Use this as

ammunition. – More computer-aided reuse means less nagging and conference calls– Industry figures show 30-50% savings in Docs is not unusual,

meaning 6 authors can usually justify 100K solution

~ Europe’s Largest XML eventCCMS – DITA - S1000D

~ 2008 - Delivering on the XML Promise: Customer-Centric Communication

– How does it all affect the customer?

~ Free workshops– Information Architecture and Taxonomy

(Mekon / Rockley Group)– S1000D (PTC)– Adobe Technical Communications Tools

(Adobe)– Building Dynamic Publications (EMC x-hive)

~ Tracks– Manufacturing and Software– Aerospace Defence– DITA and IA– Gov and Professional Pubs

~ Speakers– JoAnn Hackos, ComTech – John Hunt, IBM/DITA Learning and

Training Chair– Charles Cooper, Rockley Group– Chris Wood, BAE– Denny Raitz, Boeing– Amber Swope, JustSystems, DITA

Technical Committee– many more…

~ Learn from– SAP/Business Objects– Cambridge Silicon Radio– Qimonda AG– Salesforce.com– UK National Archives– Boeing– more…

www.x-pubs.com

www.x-pubs.com

Thank you!

noz.urbina@mekon.com