@Aerojules #LavaCon

Conference Room Prototypea low cost, high value approach to selecting the

solution you really need

Julian Murfitt – Mekon

~ CEO and co founder of Mekon in 1990

~ Engineering back ground

~ Focused on structured technicalcontent for over 20 years

~ Personal interest in extreme forms of flying

~ Julian.murfitt@mekon.com

~ @aerojules

About the Speaker

Company overview

~ Founded in 1990

~ Approximately 30 expert staff

~ Specialists in content / document-centric business processes

~ Supplier of consulting, systems integration and development services

~ Leaders in delivery and personalised content

~ The makers of DITAweb

Collaboration

Dynamic

content

PLMTranslate

CCMS

CRM LMS

The content lifecycle

A Conference Room Prototype

drawn from past experience• Developed over many years

• Medical Device, Software, Professional Bodies, Semiconductor, manufacture, Exam boards, Governments

• Vendor independent

• CRP carried out on CCMS from:

• Ixiasoft, Vasont, SDL, Bluestream, EasyDITA, Astoria, Componize

Government / Professional

Publishing

Cross–industry experienceCommercial / High Tech

/ Engineering

Aerospace and Defence

Audience

~ Who are you?

~ Why are you at LavaCon?

~ What stage are you at in your CS process?

~ XML, DITA?

Initial assumption!

~ A process of evaluation has taken place

~ You have a Content Strategy

~ There is a need for change

~ DITA has been established as a way forward

~ You have an idea of scope and an area to focus on

Project failure

~ IBM: only 40% of IT projects meet schedule, quality and budget goals

~ The Portland Business Journal: between 65% and 80% of IT projects fail to meet their objectives, they also run late or cost more than planned

~ McKinsey: half of IT projects run 45% over budget, are 7% behind schedule and deliver 56% less functionality than predicted

~ KPMG: 70% of organizations have suffered one or more project failure in the previous 12 months

~ ZDNet: according to new research, success in 68% of technology projects is ‘improbable’. Poor requirements analysis causes many of these failures, meaning projects are doomed right from the start

Lack of top management supportLack of documented reqs. and/or success

criteria

Weak project managerNo change control process (change

management)

No stakeholder involvement and/or

participation

Ineffective schedule planning and/or

management

Weak commitment of project teamCommunication breakdown among

stakeholders

Team members lack requisite knowledge

and/or skills

Resources assigned to a higher priority

project

Subject matter experts are overscheduled No business case for the project

Top 12 dominant risks

People related risks Process related risks

Lack of top management supportLack of documented reqs. and/or

success criteria

Weak project managerNo change control process (change

management)

No stakeholder involvement and/or

participation

Ineffective schedule planning and/or

management

Weak commitment of project teamCommunication breakdown among

stakeholders

Team members lack requisite knowledge

and/or skills

Resources assigned to a higher priority

project

Subject matter experts are

overscheduledNo business case for the project

Top 12 ranked risks

Human factors

How to avoid a CS plane crash

What do we mean human factors?

“Human factors involves gathering information about human abilities, limitations, and other characteristics and applying it to tools, machines, systems, tasks, jobs, and environments to produce safe, comfortable, and effective human use”

Boeing

Mental model

Only perceive what you can conceive

Only perceive what you can conceive

DITA is challenged from the start

Tweet @joepairman

DITA is a

metamorphous

change

Despair on the forums

How do I make a word “green “

in DITAGREE

N~ A DITA implementation isn't a tool swap

That way of thinking leads to dashed hopes and broken dreams.

The Old way

~ Requirements maybe an RFI/P

~ Demo – 2 Hours!

~ Feature fest

~ Often Vendor set the agenda for implementation

– Shoe horn your requirements into their way of thinking

Test drive

~ Car

• Hands on session 2 days• Support by Vendor tech lead

• Independent expert to guide you

• Cross section of your team

• Some initial training to orient users with basic tech framework and principles

• Defined requirements and user stories

• Gather formal lists of actions and discussion points• Identify and mitigate potential risks

Conference Room Prototype

Meet the team

There is no one typical Tech Author.

~ Developers / engineers

~ DTP / graphic designers

~ Journalists

~ Marcomms professionals

~ Localisation professionals

~ Frustrated poets

…..and no one stake holder in your project

Choose the team (Cont.)

~ A sense of ownership makes people happy

~ You will need to develop new roles

~ Look out for champions or specialists

– Metadata, re-use, output generation

Orientation Session

~ What benefits can structured content bring?

~ What are the basic building blocks (and how do they fit together?)

~ How might my regular work change when working with structured content?

User Stories

~ Clearly capture:

– User needs

– Actions

– Workflow

Who

What

Why!

User Stories: previous approach

Did we lose sight of the real need

~ Form of transport

User Stories: new approach

~ Activities are the main stages of developing a publication (creating a new publication, authoring, reviewing, releasing…)

~ User stories cover all the key functionality of a CCMS

~ Acceptance criteria are the various ways in which a system could complete the user story

User Stories: new approach

US #1

As an author, I want to be able to create a topic from a template, so I can easily keep to the standard structure.

Acceptance criteria:

– When creating a topic, I should be presented with available template options

– The template options should have clear descriptions or a visual preview so I can easily choose the correct one

US #2

As an author, I want to enter metadata when creating a new topic, so the team can easily find the topic and so we don’t need to remember to go back and add metadata later.

Acceptance criteria:

– I can’t create a topic without entering at least any mandatory metadata

– Where appropriate, the system allows me to pick from centrally-maintained lists of values, so I don’t have to remember the correct value and type it in accurately

~ When we complete an activity, take time to score the user stories within it

~ Scoring helps us focus on the experience

~ Lower scores indicate items to follow up

Scoring

Score Description

3 System can complete the user story in an efficient and effective way

2 System can complete the user story but with concerns for usability or performance

1 System can partially complete the user story

0 System unable to complete the user story

Prototype Sessions

~ Experience DITA authoring with CCMS, and see how the work day will change

– Builds on orientation session, and adds in crucial CCMS functionality around version control, workflow, and collaboration

~ See how the system fulfils the user stories– First hand experience of usability and functionality

~ Chance to ask questions about the system and structured authoring best practices

~ Identify areas to follow up– and mitigate potential risks

~ Gather formal lists of actions and discussion points

Capturing additional comments

~ Record any additional thoughts you have

~ How would your work day change if using the system?

~ Many features will be unfamiliar —

– do you feel you can get used to them?

~ Don’t worry about being objective

~ How you feel about the system is important

Report and data collection

Filter

Not obvious

~ MM box

Immediate Follow-up

~ Hand in scores & comments

~ Interim report including scores and items to research further

~ Follow up with vendor on questions and any areas of concern

– Emails

– Concalls / screensharing

Steps

Step Purpose Mekon actions Client logistics Client team

involvement

Data conversion Realistic sample content to

work with

Convert sample

content

Provide sample

content [done]

-

Orientation

workshop (1 day)

Familiarize CRP

participants with structured

content/DITA

Prepare materials,

conduct workshop

Arrange date,

room, & equipment

Attend training

User stories and

other

requirements

Clearly capture user needs,

actions, and workflow

Draft and refine

requirements

Put aside time to

review report

Agree & prioritize

user stories &

NFRs

Prototype

sessions

(2 days)

Go through user stories in

the system

Arrange dates,

room, & equipment

Participate in

sessions

Interim report,

calls, webexs

Summarize prototyping,

identify areas to follow up

Prepare report,

organize followup

Availability as

necessary

Join calls, webexs

Web demos Detailed look at other

systems for comparison

Organize & host

web sessions

Availability for 1 or

2 2-hour sessions

Actively

participate in

demos

(More prototyping

if necessary)

(as initial prototype sessions)

Final report Summarize findings from Write report Put aside time to Review report

Compare the market.com

~ MoSCoW scores

– 3- Must Have

– 2- Should Have

– 1- Could Have

– 0- Won’t Need

Detailed Web Demos of Other Systems,

More Prototyping if Necessary

~ Can now ask more informed questions

~ Immunized against demo-itis!

~ Find out what kind of tradeoffs there are:

– Power

– Ease of use

– Conformance to standards

– Budget

Radar chart

Example client

Manufacture network analysis adaptors and various accessories

looking to improve the end-user experience

Carried out CSA, PSP and then CRP

Mekon deployed a system using Xdocs, Oxygen & Delta XML,

Produced there first set of DITA docs in 5 Months from the CRP

What did you get from the CRP

~ Hands on experience of the system prior to purchasing, ensuring it fulfilled our specific requirements.

~ Use Case assessment of the system enabled us to confidently make a decision.

~ Enabled us to get past the first impressions based on user interface and flashiness, allowing us to evaluate actual functionality compared to our specific needs.

~ The benefits of a system, which was three times the price of the one we chose, were negligible.

Quick summary

~ Prepare

– Right team

– Carefully develop user stories

– Engage a vendor

~ Prototype session

– Collect feedback

– Score

– Review and Refine

~ Choose the system

Questions