Xinfo: Beyond the Book

1 Copyright © 2010 CA. All rights reserved.
Xinfo: Beyond the Book
STC‐PMC October 17, 2012
Adriane Hunt
Xinfo video (introduction)
October 17, 20122 Xinfo: Beyond the Book Copyright © 2012 CA. All rights reserved.

CA Technologies (NASDAQ: CA) provides IT management
solutions that help customers manage and secure complex IT
environments to support agile business services. Organizations
leverage CA Technologies software and SaaS solutions to
accelerate innovation, transform infrastructure and secure
data and identities, from the data center to the cloud.
Learn more about CA Technologies at www.ca.com
about CA Technologies
Adriane Hunt is a Technical Communications professional with nearly 30
years' experience in all facets of technical content strategy, design, and
delivery. Adriane examines industry trends and looks for innovative ways to
author and deliver technical content and engage customers "beyond the
book". Adriane has worked at CA Technologies for 23 years; she is currently
an Advisor, Business Unit Strategy for the Technical Information
organization. As a member of the CA Technologies Xinfo core team,
Adriane led the development of CA’s Scenario‐Based Content methodology
(SBC).
You can email Adriane at Adriane.Hunt@ca.com or contact her on Twitter
@adrianehunt or LinkedIn.
about the presenter

agenda
5 Xinfo: Beyond the Book Copyright © 2012 CA. All rights reserved.
Our Challenge
Our Resolution ‐ Xinfo Methodology
Wrap Up
Q&A
October 17, 2012
— What is Xinfo?
— Extensible Information
— The sum of Xinfo represents a methodology that gives
clients:
— the content they need
— when they need it
— modern deliverables
— With the added benefits of a streamlined documentation
footprint and lower localization costs
introduction: Xinfo

— We knew we needed to get closer to our customers and
modernize our content management strategy and philosophy
so…
— We talked to our customers….extensively
— Internal customers
— External customers
— Analysts
— The essence of our results:
— Too much info
— Hard to find what I need
— Need easily consumable help with day‐to‐day tasks
our challenge ‐ research
challenge resolution: Xinfo
— Xinfo is a four‐pronged approach to address each pain
point:
— New roles for TI staff
— Scenario‐Based Content (SBC) Methodology
— Just enough content
— End‐to‐end view of information
October 17, 2012

New methodology & focus requires new organizational roles:
– Technical Information Architect
Product Manager of Technical Information for a given product
Work closely with Product Managers to ensure consistent, clear, and
concise message across all materials
Plan the information delivery roadmap – what are we going to
document and when
Provide vocal input into documentation and product design
– Technical Information Engineer
Design, create, test, and publish technical information deliverables
Collaborate with IAs/team/clients to identify scenarios and content
Xinfo roles
Scenario‐Based Content brings key product use cases and user
stories to CA customers in role‐based, article‐sized, content,
ideal for delivery in both traditional formats and content
mashups
Scenario‐Based Content (SBC)

scenario‐based content
What is a CA scenario?
– Business process: explains how and where the product or solution
addresses a particular business need
– Roles: identify the jobs that are involved in the process and
workflows so that they are in context with the users’ day‐to‐day
responsibilities
– Multimedia: enhances content with graphics/video for quick
comprehension
– Bite‐sized, stand‐alone content: an autonomous information unit
that is modular and article‐like so it can be quickly scanned and
understood by the customer
– Location: can reside anywhere (examples: in a guide or online help,
as a stand‐alone Knowledge Base article, or anywhere else needed)
October 17, 2012
sample scenario – main page

Embracing and stressing the “just enough doc” principle:
– Focuses on marquee and high priority use cases for our scenarios
– Integrates reference information in the product—a self‐documenting UI
Example: If you have simple UI‐based wizard with intuitive screens to step
through coupled with hover text for complex technical terms, you dramatically
decrease the need for procedures or scenarios
Benefits:
– Improves search relevance by reduced footprint
– Reduces localization costs
– Reduces potential errors
* Scott Ambler and others have authored many articles about just enough doc
just enough documentation*
end‐to‐end view

end‐to‐end view of information
Information Architect works with stakeholders to identify key articles
to add to a bookshelf
For example:
– Traditional user guides & scenarios that Tech Info creates
– White papers
– Demos (usually showing best practices or prominent use cases)
– Training materials
– Support articles
Broad view of the information for a CA product
– Internal and external contributors
– Non‐Tech Info authors
October 17, 2012
end‐to‐end deliverables
End to End Bookshelf (now)
Technical Information Center (future)
— A wiki‐like structure that provides a gateway to all CA Technologies internal content, and
enables integration with public web content & images including peer networking and
collaboration forums
— Collaborate
— Customers will be able to annotate and update the editable version of TI content
– IAs and IEs can review customer annotations and updates to determine whether they
should be incorporated into the next locked, published version
– Customers will be able to collaborate with their peers, partners, and customers from
the TIC by linking to communities and other public forums
End to End View
– Customers will be able to access and search across other pertinent end‐to‐end product
information
October 17, 2012

CA Technical Information Center – Wireframe ‐ Home
Context of
visitor Latest  info from
forums, wiki,
announcements
Separate
portlet
instance per
product
Consolidation
of  product info
Social sites
per product
Our other sites
Stay Connected
Associated Products
Tag Cloud
Help for Technical Information Center
CA Technical Information Center – Wireframe ‐ Collaboration

How do we support Xinfo?
– New TI roles
Training programs
Workshops
Monthly roundtables
– Scenario‐Based Content:
SBC certification
Call a Mentor program
Monthly office hours and ongoing training and workshops
– Just enough content and End‐to‐End information
Training programs
Tools, workshops
Task forces
Supporting Xinfo internally
wrap up
Challenges
Response = Xinfo
– New Roles for TI staff
– Scenario‐Based Content
– Just enough content
– End‐to‐end information (present)
– Technical Information Center (near future)
Comments or questions: Adriane.Hunt@ca.com,
@adrianehunt (Twitter), or LinkedIn
October 17, 2012

Q & A

Xinfo: Beyond the Book

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