{"id":53,"date":"2015-11-16T21:23:34","date_gmt":"2015-11-16T21:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/?p=53"},"modified":"2015-12-23T00:45:28","modified_gmt":"2015-12-23T00:45:28","slug":"help-us-obi-wan-kenobi-youre-our-only-hope-for-a-fantastic-dita-implementation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/help-us-obi-wan-kenobi-youre-our-only-hope-for-a-fantastic-dita-implementation\/","title":{"rendered":"Help us, Obi Wan Kenobi; you\u2019re our only hope \u2026 for a fantastic DITA implementation!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Leah_R2-D2_Lego.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-56\" src=\"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Leah_R2-D2_Lego.jpg\" alt=\"Leah_R2-D2_Lego\" width=\"186\" height=\"186\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Leah_R2-D2_Lego.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Leah_R2-D2_Lego-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Leah_R2-D2_Lego-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Leah_R2-D2_Lego-189x189.jpg 189w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 186px) 100vw, 186px\" \/><\/a>By Jacquie Samuels <strong>\u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is experiencing a gratifying upswing of adoption\u00a0<\/em><em>over the last 10 years or so. But adopters are often adrift when it comes to how, exactly, they should use it. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>The problem<\/strong><br \/>\nDITA is an XML infrastructure, not a set of tools or a writing standard or a combination of both. Although the topic\u00a0types seem to guide you through the ideal authoring model with their set of allowed elements, when you really start\u00a0implementing DITA, you realize that authors have a great deal of flexibility when shaping their content into DITA\u00a0topics.<\/p>\n<p>That flexibility is awesome, like a Jedi padawan experiencing the power of the Force for the first time; however, the\u00a0lack of guidance can lead many a team not just down an unfortunate path, but to actually fail at DITA adoption (and\u00a0let\u2019s face it, that will only lead the Dark Side\u2014writing in Word).<\/p>\n<p>Here are some specific problems that authors face when adopting DITA:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What kind of content should go in a reference topic versus a concept topic?\n<ul>\n<li>How do the authors and the users distinguish between them?<\/li>\n<li>What\u2019s the standard they are writing to?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Should you customize and specialize the DITA topics to meet our specific content needs? If so, what\u2019s the best\u00a0way of doing it?<\/li>\n<li>You\u2019re updating the writing infrastructure; in doing so, what processes can you improve or replace?\n<ul>\n<li>How can the best result be achieved?<\/li>\n<li>How can you more tightly integrate writing processes with development to align with product changes?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Tools: From content storage and maintenance to publishing, there\u2019s an entire life-cycle for content as it goes from\u00a0planning to publishing (and post-publishing).\n<ul>\n<li>DITA includes none of these tools. Not one.<\/li>\n<li>At the time of publishing this article, there is no one tool that can do it all.<\/li>\n<li>The best you can do is assemble your tool lineup to meet your specific requirements, sometimes a daunting\u00a0task.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It\u2019s not good enough to simply follow another company\u2019s DITA implementation choices\u2014because what\u2019s best for\u00a0them is not necessarily what\u2019s best for you. There are a thousand choices to make and you want to make sure each\u00a0one helps take you one more step down your DITA Jedi path.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The solution<\/strong><br \/>\nEvery padawan needs a Jedi Master. You don\u2019t need to learn DITA all on your own\u2014you can have your own Obi-Wan Kenobi.<\/p>\n<p>Tool vendors, although always willing to help, are not a particularly good source of objective advice. First of all,\u00a0their view of the entire DITA adoption is skewed to their particular part of it. Secondly, vendors often have a vested\u00a0interest in pushing you towards a particular path (although not usually for nefarious reasons). The best tool vendors\u00a0admit partiality and partner you up with a DITA consultant instead.<\/p>\n<p>Consultants guide you through the entire process of DITA adoption, including but not limited to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>requirements gathering and analysis to understand where you are and where you want to go<\/li>\n<li>legacy content review to identify both problems and possibilities<\/li>\n<li>writing standards, templates, and training to guide authors in content creation<\/li>\n<li>authoring and feedback so authors get help and guidance as they work through the known authoring ways while\u00a0also meeting corporate goals<\/li>\n<li>process analysis and enhancement to cut down on internal costs of content creation and publishing<\/li>\n<li>tools to enable your goals and processes<\/li>\n<li>publishing and usability to ensure the users\u2019 experience is nothing less than glorious, and<\/li>\n<li>metrics to track your success and identify areas for continuous improvement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Shameless plug<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Here\u2019s the shameless plug.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been working with Precision Content for the last year or so and I\u2019ve never seen any other consultant take the\u00a0DITA topics and create an entire writing standard around them the way Precision Content has. Each topic becomes\u00a0not only easier to write, but very specifically focussed on a goal so that users can gain the ultimate benefit\u2014the\u00a0clearest, most easy-to-understand documentation. The content doesn\u2019t just become XML after adoption\u2014it is\u00a0completely transformed into highly usable content, appropriately typed, clearly written, and completely standardized\u00a0across the board.<\/p>\n<p>Precision Content has an integrated approach that leverages DITA as the infrastructure, but then takes it far beyond\u00a0what anyone else has done with it. It\u2019s like comparing Yoda to\u2026well\u2026all the other Jedi Knights.<\/p>\n<p>DITA is not a writing standard and provides so very little guidance on the matter. Other DITA consultants follow\u00a0the basic best practices; however, there\u2019s a massive gap in what authors need to have to create great, consistent\u00a0content and what DITA offers. Precision Content bridges that gap with a fully integrated writing standard ready to\u00a0be leveraged and even adapted to the client\u2019s specific content requirements. And all of it, every single piece of their\u00a0writing standard, is based on knowing how people use documentation and making it as user-friendly as possible.<\/p>\n<p>Precision Content is what DITA was meant to be.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About Jacquie Samuels<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jacquie Samuels is the owner of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.writingwise.biz\/\" target=\"_blank\">Writing Wise<\/a>; a technical communications and DITA consultancy based in Ottawa, Canada. Jacquie has been working with DITA since 2005 and partners with Precision Content Authoring Solutions on large content transformation and information architecture projects.<\/p>\n<p>Follow Jacquie Samuels on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/writin\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Graphic citation:\u00a0<\/em>Photographer,\u00a0eRachel11. (2010, July).\u00a0<em>Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you&#8217;re my only hope&#8230;<\/em>\u00a0[digital image].\u00a0Retrieved from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/28551384@N04\/4823246704\">www.flickr.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>456 \u00d7 456<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jacquie Samuels \u2013\u00a0Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is experiencing a gratifying upswing of adoption\u00a0over the last 10 years or so. But adopters are often adrift when it comes to how, exactly, they should use it. \u00a0 The problem DITA is an XML infrastructure, not a set of tools or a writing standard or a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102,"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions\/102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}