Component-based Content Management (DITA) For Technical Documentation

Using DITA or Structured Authoring for managing technical documentation

For product or technical information, a large number of global organizations are moving to a structured authoring process enabled by an XML standard called DITA. Structured authoring refers to the process of writing content in components or topics that can be easily repurposed across multiple publications (PDF, Help, Web) and across a global organization. DITA (an acronym for "Darwin Information Typing Architecture") is an XML standard and methodology that is speeding the adoption of Structured Authoring processes.

Business Benefits of DITA and Structured Authoring

DITA-based structured authoring has significant proven benefits for efficiency, costs and business agility.

Cost and Efficiency Benefits

Organizations that have moved to DITA-based structured authoring report efficiency gains and cost reductions by as much as 30-50% across the information development lifecycle. Benefits can include:

20-50% less content to author, review, approve and translate
Fewer engineering resources needed for review cycles
10-20% reduction in production work for information development
90-95% reduction in Desktop Publication (the dreaded "DTP") costs for translation

Business Agility Benefits

Many organizations are moving to structured authoring and DITA for the business agility they achieve even more than for the business cost benefits. Agility benefits include:

Ability to add last minute new features to product releases, providing competitive sales advantage against rivals
Reducing the number of product returns by keeping product documentation updated more easily
Using DITA to exchange information with resellers and OEM partners, thus facilitating channel sales
Increasing customer satisfaction and driving down call center costs by producing documents tailored to the customer profile
Reducing the time of delivery to global markets

SDL has partnered with Trisoft, one of the world’s leading providers of DITA-enabled Component-based content management systems.