STC Summit 2017

THIS SESSION HAS MOVED TO BALTIMORE 4.

In the past few years I have done considerable research on the impact that DITA has had on technical writing, and have undertaken interviews with technical documentation staff at a number of firms that have recently moved to DITA. Common patterns have emerged for why firms may want to move to DITA, including localization cost savings, making content creation processes more efficient, improving workflows, ensuring that only accurate content goes out the door, and more. For many small documentation teams, I have discovered that there are other tipping points that emerge, like the need to effectively handle an increasingly unwieldy base of documentation, an growing lack of consistency, discovering the limits of traditional desktop publishing software, or the need to break down siloed writing groups. I will examine each of these scenarios, providing information to attendees on when moving to DITA becomes cost-effective. I will also give examples of proven change management techniques to aid technical writing teams who are moving to DITA. In a nutshell, my presentation lays out the likely scenarios for why a documentation team might seriously consider migrating to DITA, and when it makes sense to do so.