RE: [dita-adoption] Adoption: Getting the right data

["Troy Klukewich" <troy.klukewich@oracle.com>]

Hi Steffen:

Excellent idea.

<quote>
Except from merely measuring activities and events, I suppose that we really need to a)have some data on the CURRENT DITA adoption - to compare against b)future REALIZED DITA adoption.
</quote>

Some potential areas of measure follow.

* Research time: amount of time organizations spend on research. Many companies do not know what questions to ask. We can provide information that will help companies shorten the research phase.

* Time to implementation: how long does it take to implement given a certain amount of documentation, including false starts, etc. Also equates to cost. Consulting versus home-grown solutions should be compared for cost-effectiveness and time to implementation. The information that we gather over time should help companies shorten implementations.

* Percentage of usability improvement: we're starting to get data that usability and productivity increases with DITA implementations. (Hardly anyone measures the effectiveness of documentation, so garnering metrics on this front could be especially difficult.) 

* Percentage of cost savings in translations: different levels of effective DITA implementation will garner different rates of cost savings. The cost impacts for translation are huge, so optimization on whatever level of sophistication can net dramatic savings. We should be able to liaison with the DITA Translation SC.

Arguably, the criteria overlaps with the concerns of consulting organizations, but I see a win-win here where we can provide a generic, vendor-neutral blueprint of information to get companies started with adoption. With this information, companies should be able to determine when a consulting solution is required and how to communicate requirements effectively, shortening implementation cycles. Or if they go it alone with available in-house resources, they'll be able to make better, faster progress with our adoption information at hand.

How do we get before/after pictures to indicate the benefits of our influence without turning into a consulting organization? I don't know. But gathering information on critical success criteria can't hurt, wherever it leads.

Troy


-----Original Message-----
From: srf@dita-exchange.com [mailto:srf@dita-exchange.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 6:35 AM
To: dita-adoption@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [dita-adoption] Adoption: Getting the right data


Hi all,

In connection with the work of the Adoption TC, the fact that our objective is to support the adoption of DITA leads me to the question of how we can measure our success.

Except from merely measuring activities and events, I suppose that we really need to a)have some data on the CURRENT DITA adoption - to compare against b)future REALIZED DITA adoption.

It is certainly not easy to collect these data - the only idea I have would be to setup an anonymous form on dita.xml.org and then try to get everyone on the various email lists to fill-in the form.

Any other thoughts and ideas on this?

Steffen Frederiksen