The State of the Technical Communication Industry: tcworld India 2013 Keynote Address
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The Content Wrangler's 2012 Technical Communication Industry Benchmarking Survey highlights key findings from over 1100 respondents, revealing that most technical communication departments have not adopted agile methods due to various challenges. The survey emphasizes the importance of content strategy, structured content, and the use of technologies like XML and DITA for improving efficiency and facilitating content reuse. It also notes trends towards adopting video documentation and component content management systems as organizations prepare for future innovations.
The State of the Technical Communication Industry: tcworld India 2013 Keynote Address
- 3. The Content Wrangler 2012 Technical Communication Industry Benchmarking Survey About the survey not scientific, but meaningful loaded with real-world anecdotes 0ver 1100 respondents 500+ large, content-heavy firms primarily North American/EU firms
- 4. The Content Wrangler 2012 Technical Communication Industry Benchmarking Survey Findings overview agile documentation development advanced documentation practices complexity drives innovation lack of strategy causes problems
- 5. documentation development methods Agile approaches 45% attempt to leverage agile • majority of technical communication departments have not adopted agile methods • those that do so struggle with challenges • challenges: organizational silos, lack of governance, differing approaches waterfall is the most commonly used documentation development approach 5
- 6. complexity drives adoption of Advanced practices Difficulty is the driver • highly configurable hardware and software products drive adoption • multi-channel, multi-device publishing drives adoption • dynamic publishing, localization, translation, and personalization are also strong drivers the more challenging it is to develop documentation, the more likely advanced practices are adopted
- 7. advanced practices most often adopted to document Configurable products Efficiency is key • configurable products are difficult to document • organizations that use XML are better prepared to respond to threats and new opportunities • challenges increase when content is multi-lingual • challenges increase with mobile device adoption and as companies attempt to deliver apps, eBooks customer expectations are driving this innovation; mobile computing also plays significant role
- 10. you can’t reach your goals without a Content Strategy A definition from Rahel Ann Bailie Content strategy deals with the planning aspects of managing content throughout its lifecycle, and includes aligning content to business goals, analysis, and modeling. It influences the development, production, presentation, evaluation, measurement, and sunsetting of content, including governance. what content strategy is not is the implementation side
- 12. The Content Wrangler 2012 Technical Communication Industry Benchmarking Survey A look at the findings structured content, XML and DITA content reuse strategy customer-created content leveraging communities top software products used
- 13. XML is driving operational efficiency Structured content 44% create structured XML • 81% leverage DITA • 30% use custom DTDs/schemas • 16% use DocBook 12% of the companies that produce structured content use all three
- 14. Significant savings in time and money Content reuse between documentation and training content • 5% have done so in order to innovate or to enable them to respond to threats or opportunities • reuse most common between related document or content sets (eg user guides, help, training) the unexpected benefit is unanticipated reuse
- 15. meth ods Com mon ent reuse of cont
- 16. One of the most convenient, but problematic methods Copy and paste reuse Most error prone, inefficient, costly method • Content is actually cloned; each copied instance exists on its own (disconnected from source) • Unable to be easily located, retrieved, updated Copy and paste is quite natural, but not a best practice
- 17. The most common form of content reuse Manual content reuse Authors locate content, retrieve it, reuse it • Manual reuse is best accomplished with a CMS • Helps organizations rapidly reconfigure reusable content into new information products • Provides authors with most flexibility, but is problematic because it puts burden of reuse on authors If authors lack motivation, are unaware content exists, or have trouble finding it, reuse does not occur
- 20. want a free chapter about Content Reuse? email me! [email protected] We can help. We do it every day for clients around the globe. The Content Wrangler can help you deliver the right information, to the right people, at the right time, on the right device, in the right format and language. If we can’t, we’ll find someone who can. Your content is your most valuable business asset. Let us show you how to manage it efficiently and effectively.
- 21. Who is responsible for monitoring support communities Online communities 53% provide online support community • 32% rely on customer service to monitor activity • 20% distribute monitoring responsibility across roles • 10% employ dedicated community manager Online support communities and documentation influence customer purchasing decisions
- 22. Some organizations are leveraging the power of the crowd to create, update, improve documentation Customer-created content 20% allow customers to edit documentation • 8% allow ‘trusted customers’ to edit and publish content without formal review • Level of scrutiny is directly linked to the type of content being produced and the liability or risk associated with allowing customers to edit and publish content • 17% allow customers to create new content More than one-third of companies that allow customers to create content encourage them to do so
- 24. Organizations use reactions from customers to improve documentation Customer feedback and ratings Benefits of feedback and ratings • 47% improved customer support scores • 17% improved documentation quality • 16% support call deflection • 13% reduced support call volume • 12% reduced average call handling time Additional benefits: Spotting problems with product design; reduction in negative feedback / complaints
- 25. Tools used vary by the type of work being performed and the industry sector served Software used to create documentation THE TOP TEN MOST USED SOFTWARE PRODUCTS 1. Adobe FrameMaker 41% 2. TechSmith Snagit 35% 3. Microsoft Word 35% 4. Adobe Acrobat Pro 28% 5. Adobe Captivate 20% 6. Adobe RoboHelp 19% 7. TechSmith Camtasia 12% 8. XMetaL Author 11% 9. Microsoft PowerPoint 11% 10. Adobe Photoshop 11%
- 26. The Content Wrangler 2012 Technical Communication Industry Benchmarking Survey Innovations planned for future moving to structured content adopting XML/DITA component content management video documentation 26
- 27. what they’re planning for 2013-2014 Future Innovations XML and DITA 21% of companies surveyed plan to move to structured XML by 2014; the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is the XML schema of choice. doing so is believed to better prepare companies for the future
- 28. what they’re planning for 2013-2014 Future Innovations Component content 14% of companies surveyed plan to adopt a component content management system designed specifically to manage modular, structured XML content. component content management systems are built to support multi-channel publishing
- 29. what they’re planning for 2013-2014 Future Innovations Video documentation 11% of companies surveyed plan to adopt video documentation and training content, usually to augment existing documentation, support, and training purposes. customer expectations are driving this innovation; mobile computing also plays significant role
- 30. STRUCTURED CONTENT 2012 TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION INDUSTRY BENCHMARKING SURVEY 44% of companies create structured XML content SUMMARY RESULTS Agile documentation adoption DITA slow, not always successful 81% of companies that The majority of technical documentation and training create structured departments have not adopted an agile approach to creating want a copy of the content use DITA and publishing content. Agile methods are based on iterative and incremental cycles that promote adaptive planning, ? Summary Results evolutionary development, and flexible responses to change. OTHER FLAVORS While 45% of companies surveyed claim to apply agile 30% use custom XML DTDs development principles to TechComm projects, few do it successfully. Typical challenges include organizational silos, 16% use DocBook lack of governance, differing approaches. The waterfall development method is the dominant approach in use today. Biggest challenge is the lack of content strategy Our benchmarking survey • Inability to effectively reuse The next biggest challenges: uncovered a wide variety of content challenges facing companies that • Lack of governance • Creation of inconsistent, produce technical documentation inaccurate, or mediocre quality • Lack of time, money and tcworld india and training content. The biggest content resources challenge identified was the lack of a formal content strategy. • Producing content of unknown customer value Commonly cited symptoms of • Process problems and production will make it available to you organizations lacking a content bottlenecks strategy include: • along with this slide deck WHAT INNOVATIONS ARE YOU PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE? after the event 21% 14% 11% Moving to topic-based content models like the Darwin Information Typing The adoption of a component content management system is the second Creating video documentation and training content is the third most Architecture is the most common most common innovation planned for common innovation planned for the innovation planned for the future— the future—cited by 14% of companies. future—cited by 11% of companies. cited by 21% of companies. DITA/XML CCMS VIDEO
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