Download - Buzzword at Work - An Agile Approach to Spezialized DITA-based Authoring

2008-11-17

Buzzwords at Work

An Agile Approach to Specialized DITA-Based Authoring

G. H. Krause, Senior Manager TechDoc

Qimonda · G. H. Krause · Senior Manager TechDoc · 2008-11-17 · Copyright © Qimonda AG 2008 · All rights reserved.

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/


History

DITA Europe 2007● Did DITA cross the chasm? DITA in the light of technology adoption life cycle.X-PUBS 2008● Chunking with confidenceDITA Europe 2008● Buzzword at work: An agile approach to specialized DITA-based authoring

You will hear today● The business case that opened the door to DITA● Embrace DITA specialization● Why agile project management does fit


Qimonda, a Top 5 Global DRAM Manufacturer*

• NYSE listed since August 9, 2006• 13,500 employees globally**• Major R&D operations in 6

locations on three continents• Manufacturing facilities in

Europe, North America and Asia

• Broad and growing range of DRAM products for infrastructure, graphics, mobile and consumerapplications

• Standard DRAMs for use in PCsand workstations

Our Global Footprint: FY 07 Revenues EUR 3.6bnOur Global Footprint: FY 07 Revenues EUR 3.6bn

18%12%

33%

37%

Europe

North America

Asia / Pacific

Japan

Our CompanyOur Company

Our ProductsOur Products Strong Customer BaseStrong Customer Base

*Source: Gartner, June 2008; **By end of calendar year 2007


Qimonda Sells DRAMs

The product portfolio is diversified and homogeneous at the same time● Different interface standards● Varying target applications● Scalable in memory density● Short product replacement cycles driven by technology improvements

There is more to share than styleguide and template● Technical drawings● Tables with technical parameters● Feature lists● Conceptual information


Qimonda TechDoc Some Numbers

One central department with about ten people ● Information developers, authors, programmers, contractors, students

Tasks● About 1000 documents as PDF to be administrated in DMS● 150 releases of technical documents per month● Up to 100 review and approval cycles per month

Deliverables are● English only – for engineers to build systems and applications● PDF only – for download, no hardcopies distributed


Motivation for Migration to Topics

Smaller chunks allow● Semantic topics (DITA, Information Mapping)● Work in parallel instead of sequentially in a team setup● Avoid duplication of work during

► Authoring (reuse),

► Review (less redundancy),

► Translation (more 100% matches), and

► Rendering personalized deliverables (repurpose)

Workflow improvements


Motivation for Migration to TopicsWorkflow Improvements

Request Submit

Req. assigned to documents

Check buildingblocks and correctfor each data sheet

Parallel Review of N completeData Sheets

Approve & Release

Old Workflow

DITA and CMS based Workflow

Request Submit

Automatic Document Generation

Check buildingblocks and correct

- keep reusable

Block Review by expert(s)

Approve & Release

ReuseReady

??

AutomaticDocumentGeneration

Yes

No


Motivation for Migration to TopicsWorkflow Change for Worse

But● Authoring, review and translation might be more difficult

► Loss of context

● Require standardization of terminology, grammar, style► Readers stumble over inconsistencies

● You must search for exisiting topics prior to writing a new one► Tidious search? Duplication instead of reuse?


Motivation for Migration to TopicsWorkflow Change for Worse

And the problems take its toll● You may need to use topics that others created and maintain

► Loss of control for authors

● More topics mean more workflows to run► Increase of work for administration

● More metadata values or parameter needed to identify topics► Increase risk of errors

Change of mindset, change of attitude, changed behaviour► A tool change is a change in culture!


Business Case for Qimonda TechDoc

Saving● Review workflow

+ Take the number of document-based reviews

× Multiply by average page count

× Multiply by average review time per page

× Multiply with number of reviewers selected on document level

– Subtract time needed by experts to review chunks

● Document rendition► DTP tool blocks desktop for half an hour to 4 hours per PDF rendition

► Server based rendition supports batch rendition of document family

Increased efficiency of experts & information developers

We do not translate ... seems to be easier to calculate!


My Blend of StrategiesGuideline for Chunking

● Comply with DITA’s topic definition for task, concept, reference.► Semantically correct topics.

● Restrict each topic to answer one question only.► Increase reuse opportunities.

● One topic is to be reviewed by a single group of subject matter experts.► Speed up review and approval cycle

● A topic belongs to a single product family or is of kind generic.► Use generic topics for cross-family reuse


My Blend of StrategiesMap of Chunks

Reuse Pools1-to-1

Topic Pool with linked image(s) Image Poolrelation

Footnote Pool

Attention/Note Pool

Pool of Rendition Settings

DITA Topic Types

Qimonda Topic Types

Topics

Sub maps(chapter)

Maps (for a family of

documents)

conref (N-to-N relation)topicref (N-to-N relation)other N-to-N relationsother 1-to-N relations

RenditionConfig

w/ ditaval &variable

def.

DITA OTFM Server

PDF


My Blend of StrategiesThe New Qimonda TechDoc Approach

Old style Qimonda document New stylecover.fm

chapter_01.fm

chapter_02.fm

chapter_03.fm

...chapter_08.fmTOC.fmimprint.fm

Cover pageRevision History1 Chapter1.1 Section1.2 Section2 Chapter

3 Chapter3.1 Section3.2 Section...8 ChapterTable of ContentsImprint

(Template)(On the fly)concept_01.xmlconcept_01a.xmlreference_01b.xmlconcept_02.xmlreference_02a.xmlreference_02b.xmlconcept_03.xmlreference_03a.xmltask_03b.xml...reference_08.xml(On the fly)(Template)


Qimonda TechDoc Tool Set

Structured FrameMaker 7.1 since 2004

New DITA-based Single-Sourcing CMS ● XMetaL Author and XMAX for editing linked to● MS Sharepoint as repository● DITA Open Toolkit for publication with ● Adobe FrameMaker Server as PDF rendering engine


Why DITA Specialization?

Qimonda has a docbook like homegrown DTD

My experience● Document structure is stable ● But improvements for semantical tagging are needed again and againChanging the Document Type Defintion (DTD)● Needed urgently by pilot users● Difficult to align across the company in a short time periodEffort and cost generated with each update● Who pays for the migration in other projects?● Who is responsible to test and update the XSLTs?


DITA Specialization

From Architectural Specification of DITA 1.1:Chapter 5. DITA specialization

Specialization is the process by which new designs are created based off existing designs, allowing new kinds of content to be processed using existing processing rules.

My experience● Solves the time and cost issue in our company ☺● Specialization gets easier and faster each time you do it● Modular DTD files have many places with similar information confusing!● Testing is difficult.● If you do not practice you won’t learn.


Specialization 1 – Metadata

Metadata specialization● The most valuable asset of your new CMS is your contents.● You accrue hundreds of manhours to add value.● You might need to migrate to another system.● I do fear that I might do a migration to a more expensive Enterprise CMS

All Qimonda topics have the same extended metadata set● Document type● Access control● Product metadata● Revision history table


Screenshot

Specialization 1 – Metadata

Content is synchronizedwith CMS metadata

New metadata fields &structure introduced


Specialization 2 – Ditaval File

Authors use ● DITA enabled editor

● Metadata specialization

Why is ditaval.dtd not a topic specialization?

This is a rather simple specialization● Ditaval could serve as a “Hello World”

example of specialization ☺

● Of course an xslt is needed to convert such topics in old-fashioned ditaval files

I did a specialization for ant built file to control DITA Open Toolkit, too.

SAMPLE SPECIALIZ

ATION


Specialization 3 – Reference Config Topic

Single Sourcing needs a golden source● Documentation department wants DITA topic● Engineers prefer Excel for technical information

Understanding your internal customer● The engineer wants us to publish without learning a new tool● The doc department accepts Excel sheets and SQL database as source

An automated approach is needed


Auto-Generated Reference Topics from Single-Source Data Sources

Subject Matter Experts

DerivedReferenceTopics

Information Developers

ReferenceConfigTopics

DITA-Enabled Editor

OtherTopics

MapsXML Fileson Server

ExcelFiles

VB Macro

SQLDatabase

WebFrontend

Topic GeneratorMap update

to use derivedtopics prior to

OTK processing

User

Tool

Data

Server based process

Single Source


Reference Config DTD and a Result


Agile Project Management

The good old waterfall model● Books on Enterprise Content Management● Many consultants want to sell big packages based on up-front

requirements● Tekom study for CMS introduction

The rather new agile development model● Manifest published 2001● For innovative products, services, solutions● Where boundary conditions and requirements are expected to shift● For IT projects with lack of fitting out-of-the-box solutions● Working software after each small iteration with small improvements


Mabe You Remember theAlgebra of sets for DITA (by G. Krause)

filename rules

structure specializationand generalization

information typing

on topic level information typingwithin topics

indexingmultiplereuse

strategies

hardwaredomain

conditionattributes

withBoolean

equations

metadata

attribute-based filtering

attributespeciali-zation

domain specializationin general

mapelements

topic structureinline elements

crossreferences

provides somesample domainsprocedure topic

Config file basedrendering

variable definitionfiles


The Chasm !!!

Reasons for Agile Approach

Lack of resources & budget for a project with full-scale waterfall model● Cyclical downturn in DRAM business started 2007

Small, skilled and motivated team● New technologies like .NET, webservices, AJAX, and of course XML.

Early adopter mode for DITA● We listen to others.● Trial-and-error approach. ● DITA 1.2 to come, ...

Limited scope on technical customer documentation by management ● Team can stay focused but envisions best-practice-sharing within

company.


Project Schedule

Milestone 1 – Proof of concept(s)● Iterations on concepts● Basic integration of tools● First topics and mapMilestone 2 – Pilot Usage● Gather experience● Step-by-step automation of tasks● Operate on multi-user multi-task modeMilestone 3 – Improve efficiency and extend coverage● Ease usage of system● Add document types, new users, new requirements


Agile or Fast

We are slow in completing the full system● There is no clear line between development and maintenance mode.● Tools are always working and still missing some requirements

We are fast in doing DITA and gain experience● Other technical departments are still in discussion whether to start a DITA

project or not.● Using the tools helps to identify real issues versus fear of change

There is a lot to change and learn● DITA-based CMS solution is steadily growing


Summary

Review and rendition workflows are the drivers for DITA-based CMS● How could your workflows profit from DITA?

DITA specialization enables opportunities● Get your own DITA topics and domain with small or large adaptation

Agile project management fits● Consider new ideas to make DITA happen at your place


Time for Questions & Comments

Workflow improvements,

of course!

I savvy AGILE

When is the next

specialization workshop?

Cultural change?!

2008-11-17

Thank you

The World’s LeadingCreative Memory Company

Download - Buzzword at Work - An Agile Approach to Spezialized DITA-based Authoring

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