RE: [dita-adoption] Website improvement

["Su-Laine Yeo" <su-laine.yeo@justsystems.com>]

Throwing in my 2 cents here: The dita.xml.org site has many problems. Some of these problems require deep thinking and some don't. I'm in favour of giving the Tiger Team a chance to see if they can leave the site in a better state than they found it. Is anyone concerned that they'll make it worse? 

The deep thinking can always go on in parallel with the Tiger Team's work, right? 

Best regards,
Su-Laine


Su-Laine Yeo
Solutions Consultant 
JustSystems Canada, Inc.
Office: 778-327-6356 
syeo@justsystems.com


-----Original Message-----
From: jang@jang.nl [mailto:jang@jang.nl] 
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2010 8:07 AM
To: dita-adoption@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [dita-adoption] Website improvement

Hello all,

I've seen Doug's proposal to improve the website via a Tiger Team, and the follow-up suggestions of using an Agile approach. That is where my initial enthusiasm was flushed down the drain immediately. Having 2-week sprints in which to do some work and then see what is next is not my idea of thoroughly redefining and improving the website. I would really like to see some profound discussions first, and these take time for at least 2 different reasons. First of all you need time to really think about stuff before reaching a conclusion that will survive longer than next year's fashion. And given the limited amount of free - volunteering - time everyone has, as all of us have jobs to do to stay alive, 2 weeks is nothing.

IMHO, Agile approaches to profound discussions are doomed from the start. Agile may work in an environment where you actually get paid for your work and have to achieve very quick results. Agile is really just a fancy word for what was once called the skunk works. Improving the DITA appearance on the web is NOT an area where that will bring much, if you ask me.

I would be willing (and I think I would also be capable) to start discussions on redefining the face of DITA on the web by writing a discussion paper, but I will not be forced into fifth gear on this. 2-week sprints are impossible if you're already on a 4-month sprint to get your paid work done. Frankly, DITA is not my top priority, and I assume that is the same for many of us. Top priority is making a living, and the market has not adopted DITA enough to live off it, yet. Unfortunately.

We need to find a method to reach the best possible result given the circumstances. An Agile Tiger Team is bound to go for half-hearted goals and probably fail at many of them. This is not to say that we do not have good people available, so nobody should take this personally. It explains why I would want to set a much higher goal for DITA adoption efforts, while at the same time being a lot more lenient on the timeframes involved.

With kind regards

Jang F.M. Graat
Philosopher and relative newbie in the DITA world