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Subject: What Does it Mean To Adopt DITA?


Hi, Jules

Another article for the newsletter.

Please note revised byline. Could you use this for both articles?

Many thanks,
David


What Does it Mean To Adopt DITA?

This question was recently posed by JoAnn Hackos to the DITA Adoption  
TC. Rather an obvious question, perhaps? But a very important one,  
none the less. I was musing over this question, and came to the  
conclusion that it's a lot like taking a holiday in Wyoming!

Wyoming - you know! Cowboy country! All those westerns, from Big  
Country, through John Wayne movies, and on to TV series such as  
Bonanza and The Virginian. For JoAnn and Frank, who are members of the  
TC living and working in Denver, Colorado, a holiday in Wyoming is no  
more than a journey to the neighbouring State. Probably in an 'RV'.  
For myself from England, it involves a flight to the US, and maybe one  
or more connecting internal flights. Then there's the culture shock of  
driving on US roads. Now I'm used to commuting up the M11 each day,  
and I'd rather not incriminate myself by admitting the speeds I do!  
Roads in Wyoming will be very long and virtually empty by comparison.  
I'll need to get used to driving on the 'wrong' side of the road, and  
using cruise control. Let's face it! When and where can you really use  
cruise control in England? Maybe at 3 in the morning, if you're lucky!

And so it is with adopting DITA! It depends where you're coming from  
as to the extent of the DITA 'journey' and potential culture shock.  
DITA is not like Word, FrameMaker or Author-it. It doesn't have a  
content editor, nor a CMS. It's a multi-format publishing tool, which  
will require quite a bit of setting up. For some the culture shock  
will be from the 'minimalist' approach and topic based authoring. For  
others, it will be from 'structured authoring' and divorcing content  
and presentation. For others, it will be from getting used to 're- 
use', rather than tracking content duplication and the change control  
this requires.

Minimalism involves understanding who the users are and their typical  
competencies, because topic based authoring is essentially authoring  
from the user's perspective, providing real world tasks. Structured  
authoring can sound intimidating, but it's really about properly  
organising the content set and guiding the authoring. The DITA  
structure is actually quite loose, and there can often be more than  
one way to achieve a certain result. It is nothing like the military  
requirements of S1000D, for instance. It can take some getting used  
to, writing without being concerned about how it will look. Somewhat  
the opposite to the WYSIWYG DTP approach.

Now, some of the ex-pats in the UK Chapter are going to point out the  
howling assumptions I made about Wyoming. It may well not be the best  
State for the 'ultimate Cowboy experience', even though 'Buffalo Bill'  
Cody gave his name to Cody, Wyoming. One of the main tourist  
attractions is, in fact, the Yellowstone National Park. Also, only one  
of the productions mentioned was actually filmed on location in  
Wyoming. I'd also like to point out that Big Country was released  
before I was born! So! Don't make big assumptions when adopting DITA!  
Don't make assumptions about content editing tools, for instance.  
There are a lot to choose from, so it's a worthwhile exercise to  
evaluate several.

So, what does it mean to adopt DITA? The success or failure of  
adopting DITA will have more to do with change management and  
education than DITA itself, making sure that everyone is 'on board'  
and understands what is going to happen and why. The extent of this  
task will depend on the starting point. Perhaps the current content  
isn't structured, but is it well disciplined and organised? How much  
duplication is there? How well do you know your customers; what are  
their needs and current concerns? The business benefits and potential  
cost savings are definitely there, especially for any form of  
collaborative authoring.

David J. B. Hollis. STC, ISTC & OASIS Member. OASIS DITA Adoption TC.


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