RE: REquest for advice on Workflow & Tools

[HALL Bill <bill -dot- hall -at- tenix -dot- com>]

>From memory, Joe Sokohl asked for some suggestions on workflow and tools to
assist managing documents in a multi-author/review environment that would
avoid the standard problems with authors mucking up styles and templates.

This is one of the areas where a controlled authoring environment based on
SGML or XML solves many of the problems. One person is responsible for
defining the DTD (which determines the structural organisation of the
document) and how the content is styled for display.

The DTD is locked so basically all an author can do is decide which of the
allowed structural elements to add to the document and type text into it.
The focus is on logical content. However, at the same time (assuming they
are using a tool like FM+SGML) they see the WYSIWYG view of the document as
it will look when printed or rendered for publication. Tenix is an FM+SGML
user, but my understanding is that ArborText's Epic Editor or Corel's XMetaL
would work the same way.

If your review and signoff process is then implemented in a generic workflow
tool you will have solved many of your problems. Taking the formatting
hassles away from your authors will probably give you something approaching
a 50% improvement in author productivity. 

Only the most skilled power users are able to use Word without hassles. The
average engineer or commercial person in a word environment probably spends
25 to 50% of their time trying to fix formatting problems (generally making
them much worse for the next person who edits the document).

If you have more than five authors working on repetitive documentation that
shares a lot of common text, you would probably increase productivity by
another 50% or more by implementing a content management environment
allowing you to share common texts.

SiberLogic's Sibersafe (http://www.sibersafe.com) seems to be a
comparatively inexpensive solution. If you are a big firm with major
document assembly, content validation and Web delivery considerations as
well it would pay you to look at TeraText (http://www.teratext.com).

The entry price to work this way is high, but depending on the volume of
work you do, return on investment times can be a year or less.

Bill Hall
Documentation Systems Analyst
Strategy and Development Group
Tenix Defence
Nelson House, Nelson Place
Williamstown, Vic. 3016
Australia
Tel: +61 3 9244 4820
     +61 3 9244 4000 (Switch)
URL: http://www.tenix.com
Mailto:bill -dot- hall -at- tenix -dot- com
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