The long-term goal of a unified content strategy is to provide for the sharing of consistent content across the organization. However, content silos and disparate technologies can pose challenges to this goal. It may be unrealistic to implement a completely unified strategy from the beginning. However, you can implement your strategy in a modular fashion that can be built upon as you achieve small successes.
This chapter provides guidance on scoping your unified content strategy so that it is not too small, limiting your growth in the future, or too large, potentially making the implementation unmanageable. If you are working with a tight budget, this chapter provides some ideas on how you can implement your unified content strategy at as low a cost as possible. Creating structured content is integral to the success of your unified content strategy, but if you decide not to adopt a structured authoring tool, don’t despair: structured writing is still possible and this chapter tells you how. Finally, this chapter explains how to implement your unified content strategy in a phased approach.
Implementing your unified content strategy in a small controlled way can help you to introduce the concepts and methodologies successfully. It may be appropriate to implement your unified content strategy in one area, or start in one area and expand.
Implementing in one area
Frequently, implementing a unified content strategy across the enterprise is not possible now or in the future. There may be barriers associated with cost, organizational structure, logistics, or implementing across the organization may not be appropriate for you. If you see an opportunity to implement a unified content strategy in one area, identify the return on investment for that area (see Chapter 3, “Assessing return on investment for a unified content strategy” for details). If you do see the potential in one area but you do not see the potential of taking the strategy across areas or across the enterprise, then do it in that one area. A unified content strategy does not have to be enterprise-wide. It can be just as effective on a very small scale (even as small as a one-person “shop”). The only thing that changes is the size of your technological implementation; your analysis and modeling processes remain the same and the benefits remain the same. However, if you think there might be an opportunity to expand the unified content strategy into other areas of your organization in the future, you should “act small, but think big.”
Act small, think big
If your decision is to focus on a specific area within your department, division, or enterprise, but grow your unified content strategy to other areas in the future, you need to “act small, but think big.” Thinking too small can result in a solution that will not meet your ongoing needs. Thinking big means considering the larger needs of the organization so your solution will meet future needs and encompass a broader unified content strategy.
To ensure your unified content strategy can grow with your organization, conduct a substantive audit –(see the chapters in Part II, “Performing a substantive audit: Determining business requirements”) across the areas that may participate in the future. Without this big picture, you can implement a solution that is too narrowly focused and that will be very costly if you want to adapt it to others’ needs. You should also model for future reuse. Take the time to think through how your models will address future opportunities for reuse. Modeling for future reuse doesn’t mean you have to model content for all the areas from the beginning, but it does mean that you should model the reusable components.
Manage widespread implementation
Sometimes the excitement, enthusiasm, and return on investment convince many people in your organization that a unified content strategy should be implemented in multiple areas as soon as possible. This is very exciting, but can also be very problematic. As many IT professionals will tell you, implementing in multiple areas at the same time can result in a number of logistical issues, a resource “crunch,” and potential implementation in consistencies that can cause problems in the future. No one wants to wait for new processes and technology that show the potential for improving your business, but moving too quickly can jeopardize the results. If your organization would like to simultaneously implement in multiple areas, the following will help you avoid the most common pitfalls:
Start with a proof-of-concept and pilot
A proof-of-concept (small controlled test of the functionality) and pilot (small implementation in one area within the organization) helps your organization test ideas, test multiple technologies, and work through your design and processes in a small, controlled environment. Developing an understanding of what is going to work best for design and implementation will make more rapid implementation possible in other areas. See “A phased approach,” later in this chapter, for more information about this topic. Companies and employees can learn by making mistakes in a small contained test such as a proof-of-concept or pilot. A proof-of-concept or a pilot can also help you to delay your tools decision and the full cost of that decision as you test the tools’ effectiveness with an evaluation copy in a small implementation (see Chapter 13, “Evaluating tools,” for more details).
Consider using outside resources
Consider using outside resources to supplement your IT staff or consultants and facilitate the coordination of the analysis and modeling process. Using your resources where it is critical and supplementing where it makes sense can help you to effectively implement a unified content strategy.
Create a top-level cross-functional team
A top-level cross-functional team can co-ordinate the information modeling, metadata, workflow, and technological implementation. A cross-functional team will ensure that information is effectively shared across the implementation teams, which is critical for a truly unified content strategy. The cross-functional team requires participants from all the involved areas as well as IT. In addition, the cross-functional team requires a project manager who is accepted by all areas.
Implement across the organization
Sometimes you may find that you have the opposite problem to the issue of everyone wanting to implement at once: you may find it difficult to convince others to adopt a unified content strategy. The best answer to concerns expressed in other areas is proof of the effectiveness in the first area. Adopt a unified content strategy in one area. Validate the expected return on investment through ongoing collection of metrics (see Chapter 3, for details). Share your results to help others understand the benefits that can be accrued from a unified content strategy.
Structure is an integral part of a successful unified content strategy. Structure provides consistency between materials, making reuse transparent to the reader and improving readability. However, your organization may not want to change your current authoring tool for a structured authoring tool, because of either costs or existing technology standards. The use of models and structured writing principles can be adopted without unstructured editors. It is more difficult to enforce structure without a structured editor, but it can be encouraged with a detailed authoring style guide.
A structured editor guides authors through the models by presenting appropriate tags; an unstructured editor does not do this. In the case of an unstructured editor, you need to formalize the structure of your models in a style guide. A style guide typically includes the following elements:
Semantic model
To implement structure without a structured editor, you need a semantic model as described in Chapter 8, “Information modeling.” The process of modeling remains the same whether you use a structured editor or not.
Base elements
As described in Chapter 8, base elements guide authors in selecting the correct tag for the model. A structured editor automatically presents authors with the next appropriate element to use, and restricts the number of elements that can be selected based on the container element selected. However, in a traditional authoring tool this type of feature is not available. The result is that you have to use a large number of semantic tags, which results in large volumes of style tags. It can be an onerous task for authors to select the appropriate tag from a large list. Therefore, you should still have a semantic model that tells your authors what they need to put into the content, but you also need to tell them which non-semantic style tag (base element) to use in their editor.
Reuse map
The reuse maps identify where content can—and should—be reused in your information set. Using these maps, authors can determine whether a reusable element is likely to exist and whether the elements they are writing are likely to be reused elsewhere.
Writing guidelines
No matter how clear the model, you should always include writing guidelines to assist authors in understanding what they should create. Provide any tips or rules about how to write an element.
Example
Always provide a sample of completed content that uses the model. The sample should be a “best practices” example that illustrates how the desired content should be written.
Budgets are always more limited than required. Even if your return on investment (ROI) indicates considerable cost savings that would outweigh the costs, the cost of a unified content strategy may still be difficult to justify. If you are working with a limited budget, you can still do a number of things to implement a unified content strategy, or to position yourself to adopt a unified content strategy in the future. Here are a few guidelines for working with a limited budget:
Adopt structured writing.
Regardless of whether you can afford new technology or are ready to adopt a unified content strategy, you should adopt structured writing principles as identified in Chapter 20, “Separating content from format.” Moving your organization toward structured writing principles will improve the quality of your materials and position them for reuse.
Write to models.
Go beyond just structured writing and adopt information models for your materials. See “Structure without structured authoring tools,” earlier in this chapter, for information about this task.
Adopt an authoring tool that supports reuse with or without the addition of a content management system.
Some authoring tools provide the functionality to reuse content with or without a content management system. This functionality is provided through features such as conditions or user profiles that enable you to “mark” text to be shown or hidden in specified circumstances. Also look for functionality that lets you import text by reference. Text by reference “points” or links to external content, so you don’t have to cut and paste it into your document. Using text by reference means that when the imported element is changed, it will be updated the next time a document that uses the imported element is opened for editing. Refer to the accompanying web site for authoring tools that support these features.
Investigate low-cost content management options
Sometimes the cost of the content management system is the most daunting financial hurdle to overcome. Vendors know this and are starting to become quite creative in their offerings. Some offer an ASP service (hosting a web-enabled, secured version of their product), others offer a lease-to-own system, and yet others offer modular versions of their product so you can get started at a reasonable price and purchase additional modules when you need the additional functionality. See the accompanying web site for details on some of these vendors.
If you can’t bring in a content management system initially, consider creating a database to store your content or adopting a source code management tool. The software industry has been managing code in this way for years. These tools are fairly reasonable in price and although they don’t offer the same functionality of a content management system and are not document “intelligent” (they don’t understand the structure of content), they do provide check out/check in and version control, which are the rudiments of content management.
If source code management software is not an option, build yourself a really good tracking spreadsheet and develop some strict guidelines for content reuse and storage. You’ll need to reinforce these guidelines on an ongoing basis to enforce them.
The best way to implement any new methodology or technology is through a phased approach. Implementing in phases ensures that you incrementally design, test, and implement in a controlled fashion. You can get the “bugs” out of the implementation on a small scale before implementing on a large scale. To implement in phases:
Conduct a proof-of-concept.
A proof-of-concept tests design decisions and tools. It is a very small test used to make sure that you can address some of the issues identified in the substantive audit, and to test the tools. Talk to the tools vendors to get an evaluation copy of their product for use in the proof-of-concept. An evaluation copy can be “free” or provided for a limited time period at a low cost. It is an excellent way to “try before you buy.” For more information about conducting a proof-of-concept, refer to Chapter 13.
Conduct a usability test.
A usability test verifies the usability (effectiveness) of your processes and technology. It is imperative to conduct usability testing before the pilot or full implementation. During a usability test, users with different roles (for example, authors and reviewers) test the processes and technology to identify any problems so they can be addressed before widespread implementation. After implementation, problems have a much larger impact, so it’s best to catch them first. The value of usability testing has been validated in numerous other areas of design, such as web design and software design; your unified content strategy can be significantly improved by usability testing too.
Usability testing involves testing representative tasks in as real-life a scenario as possible. Multiple users should participate in the usability test to ensure you get a good representative sample of results. Modify your implementation based on the results of the usability test.
Conduct a pilot.
To create a pilot, you select the group, department, or area where you plan to roll out a scaled-down version of the solution. A pilot allows for thorough testing of the unified content strategy processes and infrastructure.
A pilot is conducted over a period of weeks or months. Participants perform their tasks using the new system. They must be working on real content for real projects with real deadlines. In the beginning a pilot can be disruptive as people get up to speed with new ways of doing things, but eventually this disruption will disappear as long as your implementation is working effectively.
Monitor the pilot to gather information and provide support throughout; ensure that participants have the help they need with questions and implementation problems. For more information about conducting a pilot, refer to Appendix A, “Checklist for implementing a unified cntent strategy.”
Roll out to one or many departments.
After you have thoroughly tested your processes, design, and technology, you are ready to start rolling out your implementation to other departments. You can choose to roll out to departments successively or concurrently. Remember that departments or areas need a lot of design work to complete their models, metadata, and workflows, even though the system configurations should be similar.
A successful unified content strategy requires an effective transition plan to guide you through implementation in a phased approach. Begin by determining the scope of your project. If it makes sense to implement in one area only then do so, but if you plan to eventually implement your strategy across the organization, conduct a substantive audit for all concerned areas. However, if you plan to implement in only one area at first and then implement in additional areas, ensure that you design for reuse across the areas.
If you do not plan to implement with a structured authoring tool, create a detailed style guide for your authors that provides:
Semantic models to clearly identify how to create elements
Base element guidelines to guide authors in selecting the appropriate style tags
Reuse maps to clearly identify where content should be reused and to help authors identify whether a reusable element should exist
Writing guidelines to help authors understand how to create content
Examples to illustrate “best practices” content
If you are working with a limited budget, investigate vendors who provide options such as ASP services, lease-to-own systems, or modular components. You can also consider using source code control software to provide rudimentary content management, such as check-in and check-out and version control. At a minimum, implement processes that tell people how to track and reuse content. Even if you don’t use a content management system, consider using an authoring tool that supports reuse.
Implement your unified content strategy in a phased approach by:
Conducting a proof-of-concept
Conducting a usability test
Conducting a pilot
Implementing your unified content strategy in a single area and then progressively to other areas or concurrently to multiple areas after you have conducted a thorough proof-of-concept, usability test, and pilot to ensure that your decisions and design are appropriate