Did DITA Cross the Chasm? DITA in the light of the technology adoption life cycle: Just hype or ready for you?

Did DITA Cross the Chasm? DITA in the light of the technology adoption life cycle: Just hype or ready for you? by G. H. Krause, Senior Manager TechDoc

About Gunnar Senior Manager for Technical Documentation at Qimonda AG DITA is on his mind since 2005 and he actively promotes it for two years. R&D engineer prior to 2002 working within the areas of design, design-for-testability and product testing including located in the US and Germany. Always part of the job: knowledge transfer, training and project documentation Gunnar is involved with group dita-users at yahoo.com http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/dita-users/ Gunnar is member of the content wrangler community http://thecontentwrangler.ning.com/ You can network with Gunnar via plaxo.com http://ghkrause.myplaxo.com/ Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 2

Qimonda, a Top 5 Global DRAM Manufacturer* Our Company Our Global Footprint: FY 07 Revenues EUR 3.6bn NYSE listed since August 9, 2006 13,500 employees globally** Major R&D operations in 6 locations on three continents 33% 12% 18% Europe North America Asia / Pacific Manufacturing facilities in Europe, North America and Asia 37% Japan Our Products Broad and growing range of DRAM products for infrastructure, graphics, mobile and consumer applications Standard DRAMs for use in PCs and workstations Strong Customer Base * Source: Gartner, June 2008; **By end of calendar year 2007 Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 3

Qimonda TechDoc in Numbers One central department with about ten people information developers, authors, programmers, contractors and students Responsible for More than 300 documents two variants of almost each, based on 500+ text insets and 1000+ illustrations Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 4

Pre-DITA Work Mode TechDoc uses structured Framemaker 7.1 since 2004 Developed its own DTD (as part of Infineon Technologies AG) Steadily growing to more than 350 elements We achieved full XML round-trip and integrated XSLT processing Use of XML and SQL databases, Automatic build of tables from data and figures from tables, Filters text and even table columns based on Boolean expressions. The deliverables are English only for engineers to build systems and applications PDF only for download, no hardcopies distributed Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 5

Business Demand 2007 Key performance indicators Accurate documents in time for each new product Updating old documents within short cycle time DTD updates have always been a major issue No simple roll back after evaluation period of new release Many XSLTs need update Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 6

Business Demand 2007 Existing tools and process do not fit high reuse and shorter timelines. Review on document level is inefficient due to high reuse rate High amount of administration work Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 7

Use up-to-date tools that support Topic-based editing & review Automatic build of deliverables Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 8

The Mission Go and buy a DITA-based single-sourcing CMS and re-engineer the process. Main Arguments DITA is topic based. DITA supports multiple reuse strategies. Out-of-the-box support of DITA advertised by many IT vendors A CMS reduces manual work and provides administrational support. The internet is full of white papers, case studies and reports that support this strategy. Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 9

The target is set: DITA But remember the subtitle DITA in the light of the technology adoption life cycle So it s time for a survey 1. Have you already heard about the Technology Adoption Life Cycle? 2. Are you familiar with Technology Adoption Life Cycle?? 3. Do you have marketing background??? Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 10

Technology Adoption Life Cycle (1) Where did I get to know? Reading about best practice in the recently published book (2007) Information Development by JoAnn T. Hackos As technical author you support marketing to sell a technology (product/service) to different customer groups. The technology adoption life cycle is a marketing model is significant when products require change of behavior (discontinuous innovations) clusters customer groups (market segments) Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 11

Technology Adoption Life Cycle (2) Why does this apply to DITA? I rate DITA as a discontinuous innovation. Moving to a DITA-based system makes you the customer in a high tech market. So I read the book covering this model in more detail: Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore And this theory serves beyond buying new tools Do you remember any IT project that failed due to lacking acceptance of the target users? I do! You will need great marketing skills to sell your new DITA and CMS stuff to your colleagues! Colleagues have to invest time and trade their old tool, skill and processes. Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 12

Ideal Technology Adoption Life Cycle Number of potential customers t Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 13

Innovators These are fellows that you refer to as techies, tech junkies. They are risk takers and are willing to try out new technologies that come to their radar screen and look appealing. They have special radar screens as they go to industry-wide meetings and congresses that foster new technologies. Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 14

Early Adopters These visionaries are the rare breed of people who have the insight to match an emerging technology into a strategic opportunity. They have a dream and take significant business risks to achieve breakthrough improvements. Visionaries bear with bugs and bad documentation as long as there is the commitment to their project and good support. They are easy to sell as they are in a hurry to leapfrog competition. Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 15

Early Majority The pragmatists, a rather huge group! Their target: solve daily problems with incremental improvements that are proven to work. Pragmatists want case studies and references - but they trust only other pragmatists. The work of early adaptors/visionaries is suspicious to them. They want to calculate the ROI and TCO (return on invest and total cost of ownership). Their strength is to wait and see, which technology evolves as mainstream as mainstream gets most support from other resources which is great for ROI. Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 16

Late Majority They will adopt new technology after some time watching the pragmatists. No need to be ahead of the crowd. Such followers are known as conservative. They want one thing for one job, a scanner to scan and a copier to copy. If you survive without the new stuff why should you bother. Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 17

Laggards There are fellows that always find one more reason not to change unless forced. This critical group is a great source of feedback if you know how to address them. They are called the skeptics. Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 18

Revised Technology Adoption Life Cycle The Chasm!!! Techies Visionaries Pragmatists Conservatives Skeptics Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 19

Time to brainstorm! Please rate yourself, your team, and your management. The Chasm!!! And then rate your IT department and the consultancy company. Techies Visionaries Pragmatists Conservatives Skeptics Finally rate DITA and the vendors... Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 20

Where is DITA and the tools? Out of the Box How much configuration is possible, how much customization is needed? Support Do you have a choice between in-house-it and consultants? Which amount of budget and/or skills is available? Do your consultants help you to stay close to standards? Are they proud of implementing any thought you mention? BYO Bring your own tutorial and task description? Documentation? Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 21

DITA the marketing buzz word The vendors say "We do support DITA. The case studies say "We make use of DITA. And I say "I am about to use DITA". My personal conclusion (From webinars, conferences, meetings, demos and white papers, workshops, discussions and evaluation) DITA can be used in a very flexible manner No one uses all features and maybe there is no second (yet) that uses them the same as I want. Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 22

Algebra of sets for DITA (by G. Krause) procedure topic structure specialization and generalization Config file based rendering information typing on topic level map elements variable definition files information typing within topics cross references filename rules provides some sample domains hardware domain domain specialization in general attributebased filtering condition attributes with Boolean equations multiple reuse strategies attribute specialization topic structure metadata inline elements indexing Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 23

Examples for DITA support Solution 1 Implemented maps as file folders with shortcut links to topics. No dedicated map editor. No relationship table, no view of map content. Solution 2 Limited support of inline tags like superscript and subscript (XHTML editor). Solution 3 No experience with conref to report, yet. No large scale usage, yet. Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 29

Obstacles (1) IT department does not like every database or technology or vendor! ActiveX and/or Java allowed? Standard relational database versus proprietary XML database? Some tools are not yet certified for Windows Server 2003... Your important users might be non-mainstream using UNIX / Linux / Mac One editor tool is available for UNIX but the ready-to-use CMS integration requires Windows Internet Explorer. Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 30

Obstacles (2) Qimonda TechDoc is request driven TechDoc has no clue when a topic needs to be updated. SME -subject matter expert- may submit requests with technical details and deadline SME must review content block for technical correctness Our SMEs may create and edit source files on their own But they lack interest in documentation details and reuse strategies They do not care much for the writer s guide They (ab)use structure to achieve their favored look-and-feel Quality check of DITA files necessary by TechDoc department. Review on topic level mandatory for Qimonda Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 31

Obstacles (3) Review options PDF-based review The only online option in some solutions No closed loop back to authoring tool Requires search-and-find as well as copy-and-paste by TechDoc department. XML-based review Solution stays within paradigm of XML Server-based review allows collaborative review by multiple reviewers Build-in in the wrong CMS Stand-alone XML review tool comes without ready-to-use integration into CMS and workflow Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 32

Issues that seem to be neglected Filename convention Link management Publication setting control Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 33

Conclusion There is a DITA standard But there is no standard DITA implementation... and DITA does not even cover every aspect. Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 34

The old tools and processes are not fit for the present and future Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 35

Evaluation of DITA-based single-sourcing CMS in the technology adoption life cycle The Chasm!!! Techies Visionaries Pragmatists Conservatives Skeptics Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 36

For Qimonda the DITA tools are available but barely through the chasm Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 37

How much of DITA do you need? Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 38

How do you rate yourself and your team,...? The Chasm!!! Techies Visionaries Pragmatists ConservativesSkeptics Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 39

Time for Questions The Chasm!!! Techies Visionaries Pragmatists ConservativesSkeptics Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 40

Thank you The World s Leading Creative Memory Company

In file-based CMS you need a filename Such a filename should not be the topic title In our data sheets we have plenty of chapters titled "Overview" that are not based on the same topic. If title serves as filename you are locked Updating the title destroys the consistency with filename or you update the filename, too, and all the references are misleading to the old revision or dead or need to be updated by a daemon. If title is just a metadata like topic type Then you can use the topic ID as filename. A GUID is 32 or 36 characters long Very long in a decent list of topics with multiple metadata columns. I prefer something with 18 digits or less like part numbers in SAP systems. A counter or unification engine is needed inside the CMS. Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 42

Linking is very important for relationships The DITA standard supports URIs as link target In map: topicref. In topic: conref, link, xref, source, lq; image; author, publisher. In programming domain: fragref. Update support You either install active link management, Update links when target gets changed (where-used list!), Or calculate links at editing or publication time Suggestion: Replace links by metadata describing the target. Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 43

Variables as special links Variables can be realized with conref During editing a generic topic with variable definitions is preferred During rendering this topic should be replaced by the specific one with values for the intended output file. Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 44

Publishing by config file instead of dialogs Applications do provide dialogs for rendition. How often do you render a day? How many different rendition settings do you use? Standardization and reuse call for config files. Some renditions use the same publication format. Some renditions use the same filter settings. Some renditions use the same topic with variable values. Some renditions use the same map. Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 45

Publishing by config file instead of dialogs Output file is the rendition of the config file Any output file is only one rendition of many for each map The metadata of the output can be derived from config file. Check if rendition is up to date can be derived from data in config file. Trigger auto-rendering?! Did DITA Cross the Chasm? - Krause - 2008-11-05 - Page 46