Working with legacy content (UA Europe 2016)

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DON’T LOSE IT, REUSE ITWORKING WITH LEGACY CONTENT

© Adam Sanyo, 2016 UA Europe Budapest, 2016

© Adam Sanyo, 2016 UA Europe Budapest, 2016 2

Agenda1. Strategic decisions

2. Tactical decisions

3. Resourcing decisions


My background

Celebrating 6 years today• Six years of experience in technical writing.

• Worked on two different migration projects.

• Degree in English and Linguistics.

• Currently working for ARM as an information developer.

• “Love at first sight” when encountering DITA in 2010.

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1. Strategic decisions

• Conversion process

• Costs

• Main resources

• Success criteria



How do you start off a legacy conversion project?Note: It is assumed that you already use a structured authoring model and tool (such as MadCap Flare, oXygen, etc.) and you have a content creation workflow in place.

Things you need at the start:

• CCMS

• People with structured authoring experience

• Money to invest

• A prototype project

• A conversion process


High-level strategy for legacy content migration

• Run a prototype project

• Create reuse processes and guidelines

• Write a conversion script

• Visualize your end product


Is it expensive to migrate content?

Yes, but it can pay off if:

• You reuse the content you convert

• You create a scalable solution

• You know what you are doing

Standard costs:

• Software (authoring tool)

• CCMS

• Specialist cost

• Lost time


What are the measurable cost savings?Conversion process success criteria

• Reduced translation cost

• Reduced authoring time

• Documentation is used more extensively

CostTime

Productivity


How does the legacy content gets reused?

• Have a standard workflow first integrate legacy conversion into it

• Analyze existing content

• Do a content audit if needed


2. Tactical decisions

• Effective writing and minimalism

• Metadata

• Separating topic types


Is structured writing a good thing?YES, because of:

• Scalability

• Minimalism

BUT:

• Not suitable for every product

• Authors may find it hard

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What is the key to quality structured content?Metadata

Transparency

Reusability

• Every small piece of content must be searchable.

• It is the essential that writers know the extent of the existing content.

• In a structured model, you can reuse content across different publications and inside your products as well.


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Authoring decisionsLet us assume that you are using the standard DITA framework (task-concept reference topics) and one or two extra topic types on top of that.

• Chunk your content into topics

• Start with task topics

• Create a reuse strategy

• Decide the level of deviation from the original content



General reuse rules• Gain flexibility by using keys• Reuse block elements • Rewrite two or more similar topics

if they become reusable after that

• Always consider conditional processing


3. Resource decisions and problem solving

• Saving costs and distributing tasks

• Solving resource problems

• Motivation of different parties in the conversion process


Cost and resource saving tips

• Outsource some of the easy but manual tasks.

• Distribute tasks among team members based on their strengths.

• Make sure that everyone knows how the converted documents will be reused.

• Spend more time and effort in the planning stage.

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Usual problems and solutionsProblems

1. The team is reluctant to move into DITA.2. There are resource constraints.3. The business case is not strong enough.4. Knowledge sharing is not strong between

teams (there is a risk of “reinventing the wheel” cases).

Solutions

1. Provide training and nominate DITA champions who can push the team forward.

2. Create a small but scalable prototype project first as a test.

3. You may need to reconsider the scope of your legacy conversion.

4. Pull in members from different teams to improve knowledge sharing.


Who benefits from a migration project (and how?)

Management

• Lot of data is available to plan structured writing projects

• Can boost confidence in your team after the project

• Helps to remove silos

Writers

• It is good to have DITA experience in your CV

• The writing role can be expanded

• Better integration with other teams

Suppliers / 3rd party

• Easier to calculate revenue for translation requests

• Potential business opportunity for consultants

• Recurring work for XSLT experts


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We have about 8 minutes left…

Q&A


Contact information

Adam [email protected]


Image references

• Creative Commons license for images from Wikipedia

• Writing flowchart: own work

• Building blocks: www.softwareag.com

• Technical writing chart: www.idratherbewriting.com

http://www.softwareag.com/

http://www.idratherbewriting.com/

Technology

Working with legacy content (UA Europe 2016)