Tom Voltz from Lasselle-Ramsay presents some of the most important but frequently overlooked architectural aspects of DITA that you can leverage to improve and simplify your DITA adoption process. The right DITA approach will * dramatically decrease training costs * increase consistency and accuracy of your content * simplify your stylesheet customization Proper implementation sets you up for success. Learn how in this first of a two-part series.

1. Prepared by © 2009 Lasselle-Ramsay
Presented by
Secrets to Cheaper, Faster and
Better DITA Implementations
Part 1
Presenter from Lasselle-Ramsay
Tom Voltz

2. Welcome!
• Today’s event is being recorded – link available in follow-
up email
• Use Q&A panel to submit questions for Q&A session
• Full screen view available for slides

3. Our Presenters
Joan Lasselle
President
Tom Voltz
Technology Consultant

4. Lasselle-Ramsay Industry Expertise
27 years supporting Fortune 100 clients
with their content infrastructure

5. Overview for Today
• DITA done wrong and done right
• What does it mean to do DITA right?
• What makes DITA different?
• Compare two approaches to implementing DITA
• Why the “Right Way” is Cheaper, Better, and Faster*
*most of the time

6. Poll – Using DITA
 Yes
 No
Question: Are you currently using DITA?

7. Poll – Pilot vs. Production
 Pilot
 Production
 N/A
Question: If currently using DITA, which phase are you in?

8. Poll – Specializing
 Less than 25%
 Less than 50%
 Less than 75%
 100%
Question: If using DITA, what percentage have you specialized?

9. Signs DITA is Done Wrong
• Long learning curve
• Lots of resistance
• Lack of semantic richness
• Inconsistent content
• Difficult reuse
• Extensive training required
… in other words, it costs more, takes longer, and
quality suffers!

10. When DITA is Done Right
• Easy for authors to learn
• Content is richer
• Content structure is consistent
between authors
• Content is easier to reuse
• Value of writers increases
… in other words, it’s cheaper, faster, and better!

11. What does it mean to do DITA right?
• Hide unnecessary complexity
• Use a customized toolset
• Don’t just use “DITA out of the box”

12. Hide Unnecessary Complexity
Do you need to understand this… to do this?

13. Burger, Burger, Fries — Done Wrong

14. Burger, Burger, Fries — Done Right

15. Burger, Burger, Fries — Specialized
• Simpler training
• Faster entry
• Higher accuracy
• Easier changes
• More accessible
information for new users
– Instantly notify the kitchen
– Track your inventory
– Track hourly trends

16. What Makes DITA Different?
• DITA Open Toolkit?
• Topic Based Architecture for Content
• Specialization

17. Yes, that Darwin
• The DITA architecture
was inspired by Darwin’s
concepts of
– Inheritance and
– Specialization

18. Instead of this
You can create this
What is Specialization?
<topic><title>Feature: Sortable List Items</title>
<topicbody><p>Now you can sort the items in a list by just dragging them
with the mouse…
</p>
<feature><title>Sortable List Items</title>
<featurebody><marketing_description>Now you can sort the items in a list
by just dragging them with the mouse…
</p>

19. What is Specialization?

20. Specialization Lets You
• Hide unnecessary complexity
• Create domain specific markup
• Create richer, more meaningful and more useful content
• Create content that is consistent in form and function

21. Seeing is Believing
• Example of writing something using “out of the box”
DITA vs. a specialization.
• Task
– Write a set of FAQs for the new product
– Deliver as HTML for web team

22. “Out of the Box” DITA
• Everything You Need!
• And Everything You
Don’t Need!

23. Compare Two Approaches
• Pilot Project
– 10 writers will use the system
– 2 writers to work with team during pilot
• Joe - priority is to get an early win, and proof of concept
working end to end.
• Mary - focus on initial analysis and include specialization
and tool tweaking as part of the pilot.

24. Effort
Mary
Joe
Units of Labor
Content
Analysis
Training
Development
Training
Delivery
Specialization

25. And Don’t Forget
Joe’s team has this Mary’s team has this

26. Poll – Training
 Yes
 No
 We didn’t receive training
 N/A
Question: When your organization adopted DITA, were you
sufficiently trained?

27. Specialization Myths

28. Specialization Myths
Myth 1
Myth 2
Myth 3
Myth 4
Myth 5
Only specialize if we have to
Use specialization to extend existing types
We’ll be stranded
It’s too difficult
We won’t be able to support it

29. Benefits

30. Secrets to Cheaper, Faster and Better
DITA Implementations: Part 2
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
How to construct a DITA
specialization architecture for
a documentation set

31. Questions and Next Steps
www.lr.com
Joan.Lasselle@lr.com
Tom.Voltz@lr.com
www.justsystems.com
sales@justsystems.com
1-866-793-1542