Manage Content

Technical information is always living and moving. When content is structured, a challenge arises as to how to manage all of the moving parts in relationship with one another.  This is a very significant challenge without a Component Content Management system (also called a CSDB in the S1000D world) in place. Some organizations set down the structured content path thinking they can do without a Component Content Management (CCM) system. This is a fatal mistake. They find that they can’t manage the relationships between all the moving parts that comprise the world of structured content. In the end, they triple their time to adoption or even fail in their approach.

A CCM system by its very nature suggests that some content mangement systems are designed for structured content, while others are not.  Let's take a look at DITA.  To implement DITA quickly and most effectively, there is business justification for adopting a CCM system that is specialized for DITA out of the box.  Such a DITA-enabled system understands the relationship between objects as described by DITA, and manages the relationships between topics, maps, release trains, and languages.

Here are some questions to consider when evaluating a content management system and whether a CCM is right for your business:

• How are topics handled among different releases? And how is versioning and linking handled?

• How is workflow supported? Is it supported at a project or object level?

• How does the system handle multilingual content?  Does it track the relationship between English and target languages?

• How are conditions handled?

• What authoring tools does your system integrate with? And how does it handle reviews?

• Can your system publish to the Web

SDL offers a Component Content Management system for DITA called SDL Trisoft , one for S1000D called SDL Contenta S1000D, and one for custom structured content standards called SDL Contenta.

The ability for large communities of users to create and review XML content in a user friendly way, without losing the inherent richness of the XML structure, has great value to an organization.

With the increasing speed of DITA adoption, there is a growing need for roles beyond technical writers to contribute and review content in XML. One of the barriers to DITA and XML adoption is the complexity of the XML editing experience. Advanced  XML editing tools are required for technical writers, but for subject matter experts, engineers, trainers, support personnel, marketing staff, scientists, lawyers and a host of others in various roles in the enterprise, a simpler experience is required for XML review and content contribution to proliferate. SDL provides such an interface with SDL Xopus, an easy to use, online XML editor.

Companies adopting structured authoring processes are beginning to think about how to dynamically deliver their content and engage their community of customers and content consumers. Some have turned to wikis for this process. While wikis allow for collaboration they don’t provide a way to leverage structured content. With SDL Xopus, you have a review platform that supports XML and has wiki-like benefits for review processes that include the crowd in content creation and collaboration.

Read more about SDL Xopus.

A Component Content Management (CCM) system is a specialized form of content management system that can manage the relationship of all moving parts in association to one another.

Consider an organization that has 10,000 documents that are moving to structured content.  That organization may end up with over 150,000 topics or data modules. Each of those topics or data modules may itself have multiple versions that are moving at different speeds of revision. Furthermore, those topics or data modules may be linked to one another. They also are linked together into a larger grouping (called a map in DITA) or a (DMRL in S1000D). These larger groupings or “table of contents” are themselves changing and versioning. And to add complexity to the whole matter, commercial organizations may need to track language versions of each.

A Component Content Management System is a specialized form of Content Management System that can manage the relationship of all these moving parts in relationship to one another.

A CCM system is to content management what a conductor is to an orchestra.

You can think of a CCM system as the conductor who is coordinating all of the various instruments in an orchestra, ensuring that all sections are playing in concert with one another.  The conductor knows the score and keeps the various instruments at pace with one another.  The CCM does the same thing. It does this by employing the underlying structured content standard, such as DITA or S1000D.  Because the CCM system understands the specific content standard, it can keep the moving parts together in relationship with one another.

A regular content management system that is not designed for structured content, by contrast, can only version each moving part independently, and cannot track the relationship between all of them. It would be the same as having a different conductor for each instrument in the orchestra.  Imagine the chaos that would ensue as each conductor sets their own pace.  The resulting outcome would be noise rather than music. 

Like a well-orchestrated piece of music, content managed in a CCM provides the foundation for an organization to more easily share and reuse information, drive down the cost of content development and localization, create greater business agility, and ultimately improve the customer experience.

To learn more about the difference between a CCM system and a CMS, download the white paper, "Why a CCM is not a CMS, or Why You Shouldn't Confuse a Whale with a Fish."