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Subject: Re: [dita] Request for Feedback: DITA Adoption SWOT "Weaknesses"


For starters:

Strength: The services and products now available for adopters encompass a wide range of outputs, features, price points, and training, enabling both easy entry and sophisticated expansion of capabilities in content authoring, management, and publishing. Adopters are not limited to sole providers but may evaluate investments on the basis of COTS competition, Open Source availability, "best of breed" ranking, and so forth.

Strength: DITA skills are increasingly available among tech writing job candidates. (use wording that fits Keith's newest research here)

Strength: Community knowledge about DITA is open, deep, and generally useful and trustworthy. (statement about the value of getting support and valuable tips almost immediately from a worldwide community or from a trove of user questions that have already been asked and answered. the only other such community that exceeds what we have for DITA that I'm aware of might be the gaming community.) Weakness of this: There is also a lot of older, unvetted, or bad advice out there as well. Thankfully, commonly sought good information tends to outrank the dross in search results, and the Adoption TC can also specifically address SEO aspects of getting recommended information sources to rank higher, regardless of its origin (we all win when users get the right messages).

Weakness: The originally provided Concept, Task, and Reference writing model does not satisfy all modern publishing requirements. In fact, DITA's design is agnostic about information architectures, and the CTR trilogy is but one relevant approach. DITA topics can be written to Every Page is Page One goals, for example, and alternative processing, developed as needed, can support most popular strategies for linking, collections, navigation, or output representation. Like life on Earth, DITA can be found thriving in extreme forms as data rather than as documents.
--
Don "half-full" Day

On 9/15/2015 11:17 AM, Hackos, Joann wrote:
Hi Don,
Can you please  revise your paragraph so that we can use it in the list of strengths? 
Thanks,
JoAnn

Sent from my iPad
JoAnn Hackos
President
Comtech Services Inc
710 Kipling Street Suite 400
Lakewood CO 80215
303-232-7586

 

CIDM will be hosting the Best Practices 2015 conference in St. Petersburg, Florida September 21-23. More information at:

https://bp.infomanagementcenter.com/


On Sep 15, 2015, at 10:11 AM, Don R. Day <donday@donrday.com> wrote:

I see the issue today is about the aggregate richness of outputs now provided by all the tools of choice in the DITA ecosystem. Our message to potential adopters is that they are coming to a world of options, not only of outputs but also features and price points. It's not about any one tool but rather the plenitude of tools and their ranges of capabilities, ergo outputs. DITA's key strength as evaluated today is actually the success it has had in creating "best of breed" options for consumers. Well, IMHO, that is!
--
Don

On 9/15/2015 10:49 AM, Hackos, Joann wrote:
Hi Robert,
Very good comments. This weaknesses list was put together many years ago and is definitely out of date. However, we do need to be conscious of the problems newcomers have in assuming that the output of the open toolkit is all that DITA provides. Perhaps a statement that acknowledges the perceived weakness would be appropriate.
Best,
JoAnn


JoAnn T. Hackos, PhD
President
Comtech Services Inc.
710 Kipling Street, Suite 400
Denver, CO 80215
303-232-7586

 

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CIDM will be hosting the Best Practices 2015 conference in St. Petersburg, Florida September 21-23. More information at:

https://bp.infomanagementcenter.com/


From: Robert Anderson <robander@us.ibm.com>
Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2015 at 8:56 AM
To: Stan Doherty <stan@modularwriting.com>
Cc: DITA TC <dita@lists.oasis-open.org>
Subject: Re: [dita] Request for Feedback: DITA Adoption SWOT "Weaknesses"

Hi Stan,

Apologies for the long note. The summary is - I'm suggesting one new item for the list (with a paragraph of explanation), and suggesting removal of many others that are out-dated or (I think) inappropriate for this list.

Before getting into specifics - I have one broad, general comment about how (and whether) DITA-OT should appear on this list.

DITA-OT itself is just one implementation of the DITA standard - bundled with or sitting alongside many other implementations. I don't think it's appropriate to single out DITA-OT as the only implementation in a list of overall DITA weaknesses (or strengths). That's fine for a vendor comparison or "How to choose your DITA tools" paper, but this list is currently just about strengths and weaknesses of DITA itself.

There are 8 separate items in the SWOT list that describe DITA-OT as a DITA weakness. I see many problems with this:

  • With so many weaknesses, and no other product mentioned, it sounds like OASIS really doesn't like DITA-OT. This is unfair to DITA-OT, and likely to scare people away from using it (or from using products that rely on it).
  • It takes core toolkit design points - points that made it (and DITA) successful - and calls those out as weaknesses. For example, DITA-OT never would have survived if it also created / maintained both an editor and a CMS.
  • The list really goes out of its way to pick on DITA-OT. For example, it lists both the general lack of good samples as a DITA weakness, but then specifically calls out the samples in DITA-OT as an additional DITA weakness.
  • The list adds to the impression that DITA-OT is somehow under the control of OASIS.

From all that - I'd suggest a new weakness:

Perception that OASIS owns both the DITA standard and the DITA Open Toolkit
There is a perception in the DITA community that the OASIS DITA Technical Committee either owns, maintains, or directs work on the DITA Open Toolkit. Though widely used, DITA-OT is just one DITA implementation among several. Some individuals participate in both, but most DITA-OT development is done by non-OASIS members, and DITA-OT is not an official implementation.

Finally - I think all of the following DITA-OT points should be removed from the list of DITA Weaknesses.

>> Toolkit is just that - a toolkit, not an application
This is good to know when deciding between (for example) DITA-OT + file system, or an integrated CMS. But it is not a weakness of DITA itself.

>> Exclusive reliance on the Open Toolkit may limit the use of DITA in special environments
I don't understand this (or why it would limit anything).

>> No content editing tool nor CMS included in toolkit
This is not a weakness of DITA, just as it's not a weakness of DITA that Oxygen or XMetal do not include a CMS.

>> Toolkit documentation is very poor, and also fragmented between different sites
This is out of date. The docs have been entirely redone since this was listed, and all docs are at dita-ot.org.

>> Requires not inconsiderable customisation, in several XML disciplines: ANT, CSS, XSLT, XSL-FO
DITA itself does not require any of this. It is only required of a subset of DITA-OT users.

>> The user experience with many content and map editors is awful and at best quirky
(Not a DITA-OT item, but still out of date.)

>> Confusion between DTD/Schema version numbering and Toolkit version numbering
I think this falls under my suggested weakness above. It is confusing because people think both numbers come from the same source, and thus should be in sync. Also, again, only an issue for certain toolkit users - not an issue for DITA authors who do not use the toolkit, and not an issue for the many DITA-OT users who have no idea what version they use.

>> Considerable lag time between an update to the standard and support for that update in the OT. Many users derive no benefit from an update to the standard until the OT supports it, and new elements and attributes that apparently "do nothing" are confusing.
This is false. DITA-OT supported 1.2 long before the standard was done. The development code today has support for all major 1.3 features; new elements and attributes are supported in published stable releases.

>> There is not much high-quality sample DITA content easily available. The samples that come with the toolkit are not great.
>> Difficult to find well-explained worked examples
There is no reason to list this twice, other than to specifically pick on the DITA-OT samples. Suggest deleting the sentence about the toolkit, and the following bullet.

>> Output using the Toolkit's default stylesheets Is Not Sexy.
Again, not a weakness of DITA itself. Applies only to the subset of DITA authors that use DITA-OT, use default styles instead of those bundled with a product, and need something flashy.

Thanks for making it to the end...

Robert D Anderson
IBM Authoring Tools Development
Chief Architect, DITA Open Toolkit (http://www.dita-ot.org/)

Inactive hide details for "Dr. Stanley
                    Doherty" ---09/04/2015 21:16:34---Greetings -
                    Thanks to the people who provided feedback"Dr. Stanley Doherty" ---09/04/2015 21:16:34---Greetings - Thanks to the people who provided feedback on the "DITA Strengths" that we distributed f

From: "Dr. Stanley Doherty" <stan@modularwriting.com>
To: dita@lists.oasis-open.org
Date: 09/04/2015 21:16
Subject: [dita] Request for Feedback: DITA Adoption SWOT "Weaknesses"
Sent by: <dita@lists.oasis-open.org>




Greetings -

Thanks to the people who provided feedback on the "DITA Strengths" that we distributed for review three weeks ago. The Adoption TC (ATC) has rolled up the feedback and will fold it into the complete SWOT wiki page:
-
https://wiki.oasis-open.org/dita-adoption/DITA_Adoption_SWOT_Analysis

The following list represents the current collection of SWOT "Weaknesses". These have been collected over the past several years, so some may be out-dated. If you believe that a "weakness" on this list should no longer be perceived as such, please provide details to that effect.

We are hoping that we can get from reviewers paragraph-length descriptions. For example, here's a sample rewrite:

------------------
Original: Toolkit is just that - a toolkit, not an application

Rewrite: The DITA Open Toolkit is not a fully implemented, fully integrated application comparable to what writers can get with Madcap Flare or FrameMaker. Lack of a graphical interface and easy-to-configure options makes DITA-OT inaccessible to writers without a background in programming.
------------------

Please respond with your feedback by Sunday, September 20. Again, thanks in advance.  

Stan

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

* Key requirements: DTD/Schema, Toolkit, Instruction manual, user mailing list, etc. - from as many as 8 separate sites

* Exclusive reliance on the Open Toolkit may limit the use of DITA in special environments

* No content editing tool nor CMS included in toolkit

* Toolkit documentation is very poor, and also fragmented between different sites

* DITA adoption can seem more like a paradigm shift, with a steep learning curve and a complex solution

* Lack of a DITA-compliant, open-source editor makes the bar to entry higher than it needs to be.  

* DITA adoption can appear to be a step backwards when migrating from the likes of Word or !FrameMaker

* Requires not inconsiderable customisation, in several XML disciplines: ANT, CSS, XSLT, XSL-FO

* There is a significant geek factor to DITA

* Confusion relating to DTD and Schema - why include both?

* Many TAs don't have required skills and/or may not have access to required skills

* DITA can be regarded as only being suitable for larger companies & corporates

* Primary focus on computing needs - h/w & s/w

* Specialization can be a red herring, especially in early stages of adoption

* The user experience with many content and map editors is awful and at best quirky

* DITA is perceived as very complex, only for XML specialists

* DITA is not seen by decision makers as a business solution, to business problems

* DITA is seen as something that only relates to tech.doc and/or technical authors

* DITA can produce static HTML files but cannot interface dynamically with web sites
 or web CMSs

* When DITA is introduced, the review cycles can become much more bumpy because reviewers use other (non-DITA, non-XML) tools

* DITA is seen by the enterprise as a tech.doc. "black box" solution, not as an enterprise- wide solution

* Confusion between DTD/Schema version numbering and Toolkit version numbering

* Updates to the standard happen very slowly

* Considerable lag time between an update to the standard and support for that update in the OT. Many users derive no benefit from an update to the standard until the OT supports it, and new elements and attributes that apparently "do nothing" are confusing.

* Perceived or real cost and complexity of migrating legacy content to DITA

* There is not much high-quality sample DITA content easily available. The samples that come with the toolkit are not great.

* Difficult to find well-explained worked examples

* Output using the Toolkit's default stylesheets Is Not Sexy.

* Interoperability requirements are not generally understood

* Paradigm shift for authors is considerable -- must have training in a new way of authoring

* Training required for technical support of the model and the output

* OASIS DITA offers no test suite for DITA compliance. Any tools vendor could claim<<BR>>DITA compliance without reference to any objective compliance criteria.

* Technical writers outside the DITA community share a perception that DITA is developed by elitists for elitists

* Technical writers outside the DITA community share a perception that adopting DITA is often a precursor to writers and their groups getting outsourced or offshored
* There are few local users groups to support new adopters

* DITA integration with GIT is poorly documented

* DITA provides little direct control over the output formatting of individual pages, e.g.page breaks, table breaks.




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Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"
--T.S. Eliot



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