Every day technical communication teams are being asked to do something new. Given the rate of change that is apparent in the marketplace, and the expanding array of new devices and venues that will need to be supported, this trend will only accelerate. One question that comes up is how do teams explore the new publishing pathways so that they can determine what changes they will need to their overall content creation and publishing process. Join Intelligent Content thought leader Joe Gollner as he guides us through some proven steps in exploring new information products and refining content processes. In particular, this session will introduce the concept of a content scenario, a technique he has used for years to help organizations adapt their information product portfolios efficiently and effectively. As part of this session, Joe will introduce a public domain content scenario for helping projects to explore how DITA might be used to address certain types of new information product. Join Joe Gollner and Adobe product evangelist Maxwell Hoffmann for this practical session on how technical communication teams can handle the demands being sent their way.

1. Content Scenarios for exploring New Information Products
Joe Gollner | Director - Gnostyx Research |Twitter @joegollner | www.gnostyx.com | jag@gnostyx.com
Maxwell Hoffmann | Adobe Product Evangelist | Twitter @maxwellhoffmann | mhoffman@adobe.com
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

2. About Adobe
 Founded in December 1982  74 Offices in 43 Countries
 $4.2 billion in revenue in FY2011  Corporate Headquarters in
San Jose, California
 More than 10,000 employees
 Adobe donates a minimum of 1%
of net income to philanthropy
We simplify complicated, inefficient, and expensive workflows.
We enable more engaging, compelling content.
We drive greater return from digital media and marketing investments.
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. 2

3. About Maxwell Hoffmann
Maxwell Hoffmann
 Product Evangelist, Tech Comm Suite
 Former Product Manager and Sales Training Director
for Frame Technology
 15 years in translation industry, working
on “whatever documents walked through the door”
 Trained over 1,200 people in hands-on,
scalable publishing solutions
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. 3

4. About Joe Gollner
Joe Gollner is the Director of Gnostyx
Research. He has been implementing large-
scale standards-based content management
systems for over twenty years. His role has
typically been that of the enterprise content
strategist and senior project manager. He now
provides objective support to organizations as
they venture into projects that will modernize
how they create, manage, publish and evolve
their content assets.
Gnostyx Research is an independent
consultancy that helps organizations to make
good choices early in their content management
projects. To support this mandate, Gnostyx
Research is developing resources that can be
used to accelerate projects and improve
investment success rates. These resources
include training materials, implementation
methodologies, test suites and design tools.
© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. 4

5. Content Scenarios for exploring New Information Products
 Topics
 Confronting a Core CM Challenge
 Introducing Content Scenarios
 What are Content Scenarios?
 What makes up a Content Scenario?
 What can Content Scenarios be used for?
 What are the benefits of Content Scenarios?
 A Recent Case Study
 A Public Domain Content Scenario for DITA
© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. 5

6. The Stark Reality of Most CM Projects
Typical Content Management Investment Curve
Cost
Aggregate Cost Productivity Gains & other benefits
begin to offset aggregate costs
between 18 and 24 months after
project initiation (in better cases)
Expenditures
Gain
Time
Offset
Productivity Hit
Typical CM project requires modernization
re-investment between 48 and 60 months
Productivity after project initiation – meaning the overall
investment is never offset
One Key Challenge: New CM technology & information products introduce numerous changes in
the requirements baseline – technology is not neutral & this is why scope management is such a
challenge. If it always seems like your requirements are changing – it’s because they are!
© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

7. The Promised Land of Content Management
Preferred Content Management Investment Curve
Cost
Reduced expenditures & productivity hit
plus accelerated gains begin to offset
Aggregate Cost aggregate costs in less than 12 months
(or sooner)
Expenditures
Gain
Time
Productivity Hit Offset
Flexible architecture supports
Productivity continuous evolution instead of cyclic
re-investment in modernization – with each
evolutionary step being self-funded
There are a number of improvement strategies. See Adobe webinar on Just Enough Content
Management. One key strategy is to explore new requirements as soon in the project as possible.
This will reduce the cost of addressing those needs & increase downstream benefits realization.
© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

8. Random Question: Why do Demos blow up so often?
 Simple Question
 Well known phenomenon
 Software misbehaves as soon
as someone important is in
the room
 Possible Answer
 Demos for senior stakeholders  Key Lesson
(aka important people)
 Introduce meaningful
will seek to introduce a relevant
business scenarios into the
business scenario to demonstrate
software development process
the value of the software
as early as possible
 This transgresses the unspoken
 Demo-based development
scope boundaries that were being
followed by the developers  Content Scenarios
© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. 8

9. One Improvement Strategy: Content Scenarios
 Content Scenario – A Definition
 A Content Scenario is
a functionally realistic demonstration of an end-to-end business activity
facilitated by exemplary content resources and process steps
that can be used throughout the content solution lifecycle
to maximize CM investment effectiveness
 Short Form:
End-to-end business demonstrations
that showcase how content solutions will make things better
 Key Point:
Content Scenarios must be completely oriented towards
the needs & interests of business stakeholders at the executive level
This means they must be:
 Based on real business activities
 Use real business data
© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. 9

10. What is a Content Scenario? A Simple Example
Example of a Content Scenario:
A series of individual user stories, interchange events & rendition processes
that combine into a meaningful business activity
1. Engineering provides material in MS Word
2. MS Word is transformed into XML
Engineering
Suppliers 3. XML is exchanged with Suppliers
4. XML input is returned from Suppliers
5. Authoring works with XML sources
6. Authoring produces publications modules
7. Modules exchanged with Translators
Authoring Translation
8. Some content provided to Marketing in MS Word
9. Marketing produces sales support tools
10. Sales support tools provided to Resellers
11. Sales support tools provided in MS Word
12. Publication content also provided as dynamic web
Marketing Reseller
13. Publications also provided as an ePub Manual
© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

11. The Anatomy of a Content Scenario
 What makes up a Content Scenario
 Functionally realistic content examples
 Assembled from real documentation
 Sensitive details removed
 Should be able to share it with technology providers & others
 Support a coherent & compelling story
 Content & process models
Content scenarios are
 Background information about requirements
 Business context you can kick
 Key users & stakeholders
 Critical requirements
 Demonstration scripts for key process steps
 Reference implementations (components) for key process steps
© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

12. The First Step towards a Content Scenario
 The First Step is a Humble One: Content
 Functionally realistic content instances
 Demonstration content
 Illustrating the most representative content and processes
 Supported by web-friendly media resources
 Business Demonstrations
 Scripted scenarios for demonstrating business events
 End-to-End demonstrations of new capabilities & benefits
 Compelling to business executives & stakeholders
 Need to bring forward new delivery capabilities (e.g., tablet)
Important to emphasize new
 Anything is better than information products to
explore & validate some of
 A garage, a snow shovel, or a bicycle the usage assumptions
© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

13. The Uses of Content Scenarios
 Content Analysis tool
 One way to analyze content is to create sample instances
 Content model validation & documentation
 Prevent schemas from becoming divorced from reality
 Initiative Sales Pitch & Proof of Concept
 Helping executives to really understand what is being proposed
 Reference instances
 Supporting conversion processes, development tasks & authoring guidelines
 Testing based on bona fide requirements
 Tool evaluation, solution acceptance, regression testing
 Interoperability & conformance validation
© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

14. Case Study: An Online Discovery Service
Lightweight
 Project chartered to JavaScript-enabled
explore new territory prototype used for
initial requirements
 Provide integrated solicitation &
discovery services that validation
combines resources
from many jurisdictions
 Present government
information from the
users’ perspective
(not the government’s)
 Content Scenarios
Resulting
 Used to prototype solution was
information experiences remarkably
successful
 Used to refine taxonomy especially with
& application behaviour user community:
Farmers
© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. 14

15. The Benefits of Content Scenarios
 Leveraging Content Scenarios
 A mechanism for engaging the whole team
 Writers & illustrators as well as information architects & developers
 Ensures the focus stays on end-to-end processes & outputs
 Emphasizes investments that realize new products & services
 Enables a learning process by engaging users & clients
 Feedback mechanisms drive ongoing investments
 Content Scenarios build bridges with Stakeholders
 Engaging stakeholders, especially executives, is key
 The importance of this is always under-estimated
 Engaging tool providers is almost as important
 Aligning practical technology capabilities with key business drivers
© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

16. DITA Content Scenario: A Work in Progress
Shared Source Scenario An Evolving & Expanding Story
Messaging
System
130 Topics
7 Maps Equipment
System
Equipment
System
Computer
Platform Control
System
Support
System
Application Supplier
Software System
One hope is that it can provide a point of reference for the evolution of the DITA standard
© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

17. Public Domain DITA Content Scenario: Hard Work!
© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. 17

18. Consider Deploying Content Scenarios on your Next Project
 Content Scenarios
 A very simple idea
 Not entirely new
 Worth considering when:
 Your project is charting
new territory
 You will be delivering
new types of information
products to your customers
 You would like
enhanced support from your
executives for your plans
 See:
www.gollner.ca/2011/11/
introducing-content-
scenarios.html
 Watch for the release of
the DITA Content Scenario…
© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. 18

19. Upcoming Adobe TechComm Webinars
 Char James-Tanny
 Part II: Creating an Accessible Layout – Tips to make documents more
accessible (structure, colors, fonts, more) (17 July, 10-11 AM PST)
 Part III: Developing Accessible Content – Tips on grammar, paragraph, and
sentence length, alternate text, and more (31 July, 10-11 AM PST)
 Find Out How to Write XSLT Statements for XML to XML Transformations
in a 5-part eSeminars Series, 28 June to 19 July, Thomas Aldous
 Expand Your Content Reuse Potential through Indirect Addressing: Using
@keys-based Referencing in DITA 1.2, 11 July, Nancy Harrison
 Are You Tempted to Use a Template to Expedite Policies & Procedure
Development? 12 July, Raymond Urgo
 Are you struggling to create long, complex documents with Microsoft
Word? There is a much easier way! 13 July, Thomas Aldous
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. 19

20. © 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

21. Contact Information
Information
Joe Gollner Blog http://www.gollner.ca
Gnostyx Research Inc Twitter http://twitter.com/joegollner
Director Email jag@gnostyx.com
Web http://www.gnostyx.com
Maxwell Hoffmann Blog blogs.adobe.com/techcomm
Adobe Systems, Inc. Blog blogs.adobe.com/mbhoffmann
Product Evangelist Twitter twitter.com/maxwellhoffmann
Email n
mhoffma @adobe.com
Web www.adobe.com
LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/maxwellhoffmann
Facebook As Maxwell Hoffmann
Facebook As Adobe Technical Communication Professionals
Group
Calendar of upcoming eSeminars: http://adobe.ly/xdzOYa
Previously recorded eSeminars: http://adobe.ly/qo3pzc
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. 21

22. © 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.