Content Modelling Workshop (J Gollner TC World 2013)

Copyright © Joe Gollner 2013

Content

Modelling Joe Gollner

Gnostyx Research Inc.

[email protected]

www.gollner.ca

@joegollner

Core Concepts & Terminology

Perspectives on

Content Modelling

Content Modelling

Technique

The Three Key Sides to

Content Modelling

Content Types

Content Composition

Content Processes

Workshop Topics

Core Concepts & Terminology

Content

Core Concepts: Content & Information

Content is potential information (an asset)

Is what we

plan, design, create, reuse & manage

so that we can deliver effective

information products

Is the meaningful organization of data

communicated in a specific context

with the purpose of influencing others

Information is a transaction (an action)

Information transactions contain content

Information

Publishing

The process of transforming

content assets

into information products

that can be effectively transacted

Documents

Documents are the persistent form of

information transactions that have been

exchanged as part of a business process.

Documents are a fact of life & can take

many forms.

Related Definitions

Content

Acquisition

Creation

Content

Delivery

Publishing

Content

Engagement

Use

Building Blocks in the Content Lifecycle

ContentAcquisition

ContentManagement

ContentDelivery

ContentEngagement

Content Management

Control

Content Strategy

A strategy is a plan of action

directed towards achieving

a long-term goal through the

coordination, integration

and application of the

resources and capabilities

available to an enterprise

A Content Strategy seeks to make content a strategic asset that

can be leveraged by state-of-the-art technology to achieve

concrete business goals. This strategy will set out a plan of

balanced investments to improve how content is acquired,

delivered, engaged and managed. A Content Strategy also, and

perhaps primarily, determines what content is needed & why.

ContentAcquisition

ContentManagement

ContentDelivery

ContentEngagement

ContentStrategy

Questions Surrounding the Content Lifecycle

• Content is only

usefully understood

as part of its lifecycle

• Where it comes from?

• Where it goes?

• Who is responsible

for it?

• Why is it created

in the first place?

• How is it published?

• How many different information products will it support?

• How are the published information products used?

ContentAcquisition

ContentManagement

ContentDelivery

ContentEngagement

ContentStrategy

The Role of Content Architecture

Content Architecture

ContentAcquisition

ContentManagement

ContentDelivery

ContentEngagement

ContentStrategy

Content Solution

Content Model

A detailed model of the content and its lifecycle

Identifies:· Content Types· Content Composition· Content Process Steps

Establishes the point of reference for all content solution implementation activities

Perspectives on Content Modelling

Content Archeology

Rahel Bailie

www.intentionaldesign.ca

Identifying & studying

content “in the wild” &

following the paths inside

Often a major

revelation for

content

owners

Understanding the Content Inside

Cleve Gibbon

www.clevegibbon.com

Developing a model of what happens behind the

page in order to design a content architecture that

will govern a content management solution

Applying the all-important

discipline of abstraction

in order to establish more

general technical solutions

UML is a standardized

modeling language for

designing software

applications

www.uml.org

Object Management

Group (OMG)

Use Case Diagrams

Models the interaction

between users and

the software application

System perspectice

Unified Modeling Language (UML 2.0)

Class Diagrams

Used to model the static

structure of a system

Models the classes in a

system, including their

attributes, methods, and

relationships

Can be applied to the

content resources within a

system and their attributes

and relationships

• Type Hierarchies

• Composition

• Other relationships

Unified Modeling Language (UML 2.0)

Business Process Model & Notation (BPMN)

Jackie Damrau & Joe Gollner – Business Process Workshop (2013)

BPMN 2.0 is from the Object Management Group (OMG)

as a tool for understanding, graphically, business procedures

www.bpmn.org

Large-scale

software project

$225 million

Content & document

handling processes

Modeling Approach

UML & full suite of Enterprise software design tools

International specialists brought onboard to assist in planning

Substantial budget set aside for stakeholder engagement

Result

Communication breakdown. Models not understood at all.

Case Study: A Breakdown in Modeling

Microstar Near & Far

Document Type Definition (DTD) Visual Modeller

Very popular & dearly missed

Simple enough to show executives

Only addressed content structure

Modelling Content Structures

Looking for a Better Answer

Designed as a unification & rationalization

of UML providing an integrated, single view

of complex systems

Object Process Methodology (OPM)

Prof Dov Dori

Israel Institute

of Technology &

MIT

www.opcat.com

OPM Modeling Notation

Object Process Object States1 2

RelationshipsAgent Link

Effect Link

Integrated modeling notation

designed for complex systems

Establishes Objects and

Processes as the two

fundamental building blocks

Processes change Objects

Single modeling view

- Inheritance

- Composition

- Process flow

Exhibits

Alternatives were unsatisfying in being either:

Too complex to use with executive & business stakeholders

Too oriented towards software design

• UML / OPM

Too superficial to facilitate a rigorous understanding of

content & content processes for the purposes of automation

• Flowcharting / BPMN

Too limited in only representing content structures but not

processing events

• Near & Far / Visual tools for modelling XML Schemas

The Search Continued

Content Modelling Technique

A Content Modelling Technique could be

constructed from:

Object Process Methodology (OPM)

• Basic framework where objects & processes are treated as peers

IDEF0 Function Modelling

• General principles for representing manufacturing processes

Object Modeling Technique (OMT)

• Visually elegant precursor to UML

A strict discipline could be applied to limit the visual complexity

of diagrams while addressing the needs of content modelling

The Search for a Content Modelling Technique

IDEF0 – Function Modelling

ICAM Definition for Function Modelling

ICAM – Integration Computer-Aided

Manufacturing

Drawing on Multiple Sources: IDEF0

OMT

Modelling

technique

developed in

1991 by a team

led by James

Rumbaugh (a

later contributor

to UML)

Object Modeling Technique (OMT)

Content Modelling Technique - Notation

Three Building Blocks:

- Objects

- Processes

- Actors

What’s New: Actors

- Elevation of OPM Agent link

- Analogous to the UML Actor

- Actors are people or organizations

who are responsible for outcomes

Content Modelling Technique (CMT)

Inheritance CompositionFlow

One or more Zero or more

One Zero or one

Start End

Order

Object Process Actor

Choice

Objects are “things” that can be used, consumed, produced or called upon to provide a service.

Relationship Cardinality

ChoiceDetails

Annotation

Processes act upon “objects” in order to change their state. Processes may use, consume, produce objects or depend upon the services from objects.

Actors assume responsibility for outcomes. Actors can call upon processes, objects & other actors.

A modeling technique that provides a systematic and disciplined way to represent content objects and processesin the context of business goals and responsibilities assumed by organizations or individuals (actors).

Object

“Thing” that can be acted upon

• Examples:

• Document Artifact

• Information Resource

• Content Asset

Can exhibit Attributes

States can be changed by processes

Can be used in the sense of an object in O-O

analysis & design to encapsulate behaviour

CMT Objects

Object

Object

Attributes

ProcessProcess

Activity that can act upon,

and change the state of, objects

Can be manual or automated or a combination

Can be broken down into discrete process steps

Must always have at least one object as an input

Must always have at least one object as an output

Process steps are connected by object transfers

CMT Processes

ActorActor

Nexus of responsibility

• Individual

• Organization

Responsible for a process & its outcomes

“Owns” objects

Can play one or more roles in a process

• Examples:

• Creator

• Approver

CMT Actors

Inheritance

Establish a type hierarchy classification scheme

exhibiting “is-a” relationships

• A Taxonomy

• Child types are said to be specializations

of the more general types

Examples

• Content Type specialization

• A test is a specialized

form of a task

• Actor Type specialization

• Business Analyst &

Technical Analyst are

types of Analyst

CMT Inheritance

Inheritance

test

task

Analyst

Business Analyst

Technical Analyst

Composition

Composition

Establishes the make-up of an entity

Hierarchical classification scheme based on the

breakdown of an entity into its constituent parts

A “Part-ology”

Examples

Content Object decomposition

Process decomposition

CMT Composition

Document

FrontMatter

BodyRear

MatterApproval

Review Testing Sign-off

Cardinality

Represents key cases

Avoids over-specification

• e.g., Min 1 Max 4

• These are constraints that

can, and should, be specified

separately (implementation detail)

Organization

How entities will appear

Process Flow

Movement of objects through process steps

CMT Relationships

One or more Zero or more

One Zero or one

Relationship Cardinality

FlowStart End

Order Choice

CMT in Action: A Simple Example

Business Needs

Document

IdentifyNeeds

Customer

DocumentRequirements

ProjectTeam

DraftRequirementsSpecification

Use Case Test CaseSystem

Constraint

RequirementsValidation

TestingTeam

PrototypingTechnicalProof of Concept

UsabilityTesting

BaselineRequirementsSpecification

Establish Project Requirements

• Different types of Actors shown: Customer, Project Team, Testing Team

• Content objects connect each process

• Decomposition shown for an object, a process & an actor

• Different cardinalities are shown:

optional, optional but repeatable, mandatory, mandatory and repeatable

Actors

Flow of

Responsibility

Process

Business

process model

Object

State Transition model

Selective Views of a CMT Model

CustomerProjectTeam

TestingTeam

IdentifyNeeds



Business Needs

Document



Drilling Down into the Details

Business Needs

Document

IdentifyNeeds

Customer


ProjectTeam


Use Case Test CaseSystem

Constraint


TestingTeam

PrototypingTechnicalProof of Concept

UsabilityTesting


Establish Project Requirements

Task Setup Task Steps Task Result

Test Setup Test Steps Test Result

IdentifyUncertainties

PlanExperiments

ConductExperiments

DocumentResults

Content Modelling Technique

Has been fashioned from numerous modelling precedents

Has been consciously tailored to align with common

features of content objects and processes

Has been stripped of as much visual detail as possible

so that CMT models can be used to communicate

with executive and business stakeholders

Has been designed to emphasize three relationship types

• Content type hierarchies

• Content composition

• Content processing

Reflections on Content Modelling Technique

Content Types

Identify atomic types

Establish familial

relationships between types

What types are specialized

examples of more general

types (facilitates processing)

Modelling Content Types

unitOfMeasure

uomSpan uomVoltageuomVelocity

mps fps kmph mph

Units of MeasureTaxonomy

Selective View of a DITA Task Specialized as a Test

stepsection

testStep

testtestBody testSetup

taskbody

task

step

Content Composition

Content assets are typically

described in terms of what

they contain

What they are made up of

Published information

products (documents)

are likewise composed

of content assets

assembled in a

specific order &

processed in a

specific way

Modelling Content Composition

Specialized DITA Step

testStep

testDataRef

note

cmd

testResult

choices

itemgroup

choicetable

info

stepxml

substeps

stepresultstep

Content Processing

Processes can be broken

down to as low a level of

detail as is necessary

Processes will encompass

business events (approvals),

tasks performed by people (writing),

and automated steps

(validations, transformations, transmittals,…)

Understanding the processes will ultimately

determine what level of detail must be modelled in

the content assets

Modelling Content Processes

Content processes frequently cross

organizational boundaries

- Suppliers

Provides a form of organizational

encapsulation

In this example, one actor (Prime) is responsible

for the project while other actors (Subs) are a

mechanism for performing a specific sub-process

Modelling Processes in Content Environments

SolutionImplementation

Project

PrimeContractor

PlanProject

IntegrateSolution

InitiateSolution

SupportSolution

Sub-Contractor

CoordinateSub-

ContractorProjects

Content Modelling Technique (CMT) offers

A simplified modelling notation that has been tailored to

modelling content & content processes

• Supports the all important engagement of non-technical stakeholders

Focuses on modelling three forms of relationship that are

critical to understanding content & content processes

• Content type hierarchies

• Content composition

• Content processing

Retains sufficient theoretical rigour to facilitate the

construction of content models precise enough to facilitate

the application of efficient & effective automation

Summary

Questions & Comments

Making Connections

Joe Gollner

Gnostyx Research Inc.

www.gnostyx.com

[email protected]

Twitter: @joegollner

Blog: The Content Philosopher

www.gollner.ca