Calculating the ROI forXML and DITA
Topic-Based Authoring
Sarah O’Keefe, Scriptorium Publishing
background imageflickr: thelastminute
Sarah O’Keefe
! Founder and president, Scriptorium Publishing
! Content strategy fortech comm
! Interested in collision ofcontent, publishing, andtechnology
! My ID: @sarahokeefe
! Scriptorium: @ScriptoriumTech
! #techcomm or #dita may be appropriate
Housekeeping notes
! Everyone is muted except for the presenter
! Please ask your questions through the Questions area in the webcast interface
! The presentation is being recorded; attendees do not appear in the recording
Overview
! Business case examples (with numbers)
! YMMV
! IANAL
! WYSIOO
! Big-picture musings on other issues (without numbers)
Localization provides aneasy cost justification.
Flickr: iancarroll
Localization cost
! Estimate 30–50 percent of total localization cost is desktop publishing
! With XML-based publishing, you can squeeze that cost to under 10 percent
! Cost savings: $20K–$40K per $100K in localization cost
Increased content reuse
Flickr: a-m-photo
Content reuse
! Baseline assumption:
! DITA = increased content reuse!
! 10,000 topics
! Development cost: $200 per topic (4!hours x $50)
! 5% more content reuse = $100,000 in savings (and additional savings in localization)
Are you copying andpasting?! Calculate cost of updates in multiple
documents
! Consider error rates
! Don’t forget the mental health toll
External content reusefor increased ROI! Software error messages
! Product specifications in product database and datasheets
! Product descriptions
! Training
! Tech support
Non-DITA problems forcontent reuse! Improve collaboration among writers
! Develop and enforce consistent style standards
A wise man once toldme…
“You should not implement XML as a substitute for creating a style guide.”
Also…
“Structure is no substitute for management.”
ROI depends on team(dys)function.
Flickr: kevenlaw
A high-functioning teamis a prerequisite to…! Share topics
! Communicate updates
! Minimize content “ownership” issues
! Smooth out inevitable conflicts
! Cooperate on assignments
Complex conditionalcontent may require XML.
Photo: www.christianholmer.com
XML can help with…
! Multiple conditional dimensions (platform, customer, audience, product)
! Huge number of possible variations
! Dynamic versioning instead of static publishing of a limited number of variations
Quality justification forcomplex conditional text! Eliminate redundancy
! More targeted information
! Meet customer requirement for personalized documentation
! Enable more versioning than supported in current toolset
! Enable dynamic publishing
Complex conditionalexample! 40 variations of a deliverable
! Configure and publish one at a time:
! 1 hour per variant
! 40 hours of work per deliverable, per release ($2,000)
! Dynamic publishing: publish once
Assumptions
! Tagging work does not change for static versus dynamic publishing
! Programming effort to enable dynamic publishing included in implementation cost
Complex conditionsrequire careful design.
Photo: Rachel Houghton
Yesterday’s content…
flickr: uhop
Time to market
Flickr: chris_radcliff
Time to market
! If product revenue is $1M per year, then each week of availability is worth about $20K in revenue.
! Accelerate delivery of first language
! Reduce delays in shipping localized versions
Newpublishing
architectures
Flickr: ccharmon
“One of the greatpowers of XML is tofree information
from being merelytext on a page, and
to give it otherkinds of roles.”
www.scriptorium.com/blog/2010/09/the-promise-of-xml-publishing.html
David KellySenior Technical Consultant
Integrating with user-generated content! Source content in XML
! Transform to accommodate user-generated content
! Use metadata to support unified search
Just-in-time publishing
! Topic-based rather than deliverable-based publishing
! Incremental deliveries for localization
! Content deliveries decoupled from software deliveries
Analytics
! Measure how topics are used
! Act on information about:
! Popular topics
! Unpopular topics
! Unsuccessful searches
! Topics with lots of comments
DITA implementationcost averages $106K.! Source: “The state of structure in
technical communication,” 2009. www.scriptorium.com/blog/2010/05/the-state-of-structure-in-technical-communication.html
Your business case needsto show more than $106K.! Localization
! Increased reuse
! Support for complex conditionality
! Faster time to market
! Support for new publishing architecture
Factors that increaseimplementation cost! Software integration issues
! Complex output/formatting requirements
! Inconsistent source files
! Source files that are not topic-based
! Content management system
! People
Change management iscritical
A few of my (not) favoritethings! Dysfunctional teams
! Information hoarding during implementation
! Tool-specific blinders
! Using XML/DITA to clone an existing, problematic workflow
Dysfunctional teams
! Improve communication
! Improve collaboration
! Build trust
! Provide project roadmap early
Information hoarding
! Do not reward this behavior
! Implicitly
! Explicitly
! Avoid communication bottlenecks
! Document project decisions
! Distribute project information
Tool-specific view of theworld! Ask for open minds
! Consider new features, not just cloning old features
! Try out a variety of XML tools
Cloning an existingworkflow! Identify best and worst features of
current workflow
! Identify new requirements that can’t be met with current workflow
! Understand how new workflow affects authors
Match any two forinstant XML justification
Topics 2,000+Writers 10+Supported languages 3+Deliverable formats 2+
flickr: booleansplit
Structured authoringsurvey! Researching adoption rates, issues, tools
! Open until March 1
! Participants get free results
! http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/structure
! Please participate, and tell your friends!
Coming attractions
! February 8: Attractive DITA output (it IS possible)!
! March: Trends in technical communication, 2011
! April: Structured authoring survey results
Questions? Comments?
