14
ADOPTING A STANDARD: A MORE AGILE APPROACH Edwina Lui Information Architect, Kaplan Publishing 1 Thursday, September 19, 13

Adopting a Standard: A More Agile Approach

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

Content management is more than buying and implementing a CMS. Increasingly, publishers need to manage their content at a very granular level in order to get the most value out of it. Basing a content management strategy on standards makes workflows more efficient, content more discoverable and repurposable, and products more compelling and accessible.

Citation preview

Page 1: Adopting a Standard: A More Agile Approach

ADOPTING A STANDARD: A MORE AGILE APPROACH

Edwina LuiInformation Architect, Kaplan Publishing

1Thursday, September 19, 13

Page 2: Adopting a Standard: A More Agile Approach

KAPLAN TEST PREP

Graduate ProgramsPreparation for business, medical, law, and

graduate admissions exams

Precollege ProgramsTutoring/test prep for K-8 state test readiness,

college prep, and K12 teacher resources

Health ProgramsProfessional licensing preparation programs for

doctors and nurses

Bar ReviewComprehensive and Multi-State bar review for

aspiring lawyers

Kaplan PublishingPrint and digital course and retail materials for KTP’s

strategic business units (SBUs)

2Thursday, September 19, 13

Page 3: Adopting a Standard: A More Agile Approach

KAPLAN PRODUCTS (SOME OF THEM...)

Print Books EPUBs

Mobile Apps Qbanks

iBooks

Online Tests

Courses

Tutoring

3Thursday, September 19, 13

Page 4: Adopting a Standard: A More Agile Approach

DITA XML

- Darwin Information Typing Architecture

- current official release: 1.2; upcoming release: 1.3

- open XML standard with large, active community

- free DITA Open Toolkit (DITA-OT) provides base publishing pipelines to many outputs

- open DITA for Publishers (D4P) project provides publishing pipelines and specializations specific to publishing industry

- mature model with broad existing tool support

4Thursday, September 19, 13

Page 5: Adopting a Standard: A More Agile Approach

SHOPPING LIST

✓ specialized DITA 1.2 + DITA-OT

✓desktop XML editor

✓web-based XML editor

✓enterprise CCMS

✓custom XSLTs

✓digital asset management system

✓consultants (x5)

5Thursday, September 19, 13

Page 6: Adopting a Standard: A More Agile Approach

SOUNDS GREAT, BUT...

6Thursday, September 19, 13

Page 7: Adopting a Standard: A More Agile Approach

IS A STANDARD STILL A STANDARD IF YOU CUSTOMIZE IT?- 3 separate implementations of specialized DITA across Kaplan Inc.:

- Kaplan Test Prep: DITA 1.2

- Kaplan University: DITA 1.2 + QTI 2.1

- Kaplan Professional Education: DITA 1.3 + Learning & Training

- version management:

- DITA 1.2 released Dec 2010

- DITA 1.3 in development, release date TBD

- DITA 2.0 proposals being drafted, release date TBD

- specialization away from the open standard will mandate customization of tools, etc.

7Thursday, September 19, 13

Page 8: Adopting a Standard: A More Agile Approach

“If you build it, they will come...right?”

- user onboarding is often more challenging than anticipated; e.g., varying levels of XML familiarity

- stakeholder readiness may be low due to current business requirements, legacy infrastructure, etc.

- midstream transitioning to new systems and standards is complex (to say the least)

- large-scale change can lead to crippling user fatigue, especially if multiple tools/processes/standards are introduced at once

- in eyes of stakeholders, long-term benefits may not outweigh short-term pain of transition

FIELD OF DREAMS

8Thursday, September 19, 13

Page 9: Adopting a Standard: A More Agile Approach

THE KEY: EFFECTIVE CHANGE

MANAGEMENT

9Thursday, September 19, 13

Page 10: Adopting a Standard: A More Agile Approach

MAINTAIN THE STANDARD

- internal governance of implemented standard with major stakeholders, including variants of standard

- active participation in open standard community

- regular reviews of standard against current business requirements

- ongoing training for active users, either as trainees or trainers themselves

10Thursday, September 19, 13

Page 11: Adopting a Standard: A More Agile Approach

PACE YOURSELF

- don’t ignore “curmudgeons” in favor of early adopters

- fewer users left behind, more successful transition

- retain adequate support for existing processes if clean break not possible

- consider smaller improvements as part of the larger leap

11Thursday, September 19, 13

Page 12: Adopting a Standard: A More Agile Approach

LOOK FOR MORE OPPORTUNITIES

- authoring style guide

- content model for authoring and/or storage

- legacy content files; e.g., InDesign

- bug reports and reporting process

- training documentation

- instructional design and pedagogy

12Thursday, September 19, 13

Page 13: Adopting a Standard: A More Agile Approach

ONGOING FEEDBACK

- solicit feedback throughout implementation of new standard, not just at end

- actively seek out both positive and negative comments

- adjust training, documentation, implementation, etc. (easier if it’s done in increments)

- feedback is more constructive if it’s based on actual use of the new standard or system

13Thursday, September 19, 13

Page 14: Adopting a Standard: A More Agile Approach

SEE? SIMPLE.*

Edwina LuiInformation Architect, Kaplan Publishing

[email protected]

*Not really.

14Thursday, September 19, 13