Enterprise Content Metamodel: Information Type Definitions

1. Enterprise Content Metamodel: Information Type Definitions Specialization Focus Area Rob Hanna September 22, 2010

2. Agenda • Introduction • Describe Business Document Environment • Introduce 3 Content Models • DITA Information Model • Information Mapping® • Enterprise Content Metamodel

3. Presentation Objectives • Explore three known information models • Discuss merits of each leading to decisions on: • whether one is best suited to the efforts of the subcommittee; or • if a new model needs to be developed

4. Specialization Focus Area • The goal of the Specialization Focus Area is to make recommendations for structural and domain specializations needed to support enterprise business documents • The first task is to identify potential new information types that would require structural specialization • Once the information types have been determined, the Focus Area will examine specific domain specializations common across all information types in this domain

5. Objectives for the Metamodel • Develop a universal metamodel to describe typical business document content • Identify reusable semantic structures with a compatible granularity to the DITA standard • Describe a framework for adoption of a DITA standard for enterprise business documents

6. Business Documents Typically include controlled items such as: Typically do not include items such as: Memoranda and correspondence Newsletters and social media Third-party materials Database and financial output These items along with business documents represent business records • Policies and procedures • Product development/maintenance documentation • Technical publications • Sales and marketing materials

7. Research • Content Models • Information Mapping® • DITA • Document Models • Military Specifications (S1000D, 2361, 2167, 498) • ISO (9000, 15489) • Business Object Models • Rational Unified Process/Unified Modeling Language • Zachman Framework • Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

8. Nature of Business Documents • Business documents are • a conglomeration of different types of information • managed using extensive metadata • process-driven • referenced by content used elsewhere in the process • While there are no widely adopted standards for content models, there are typical document types and recognizable structures in most business documents

9. Accountability • A convergence of factors are driving business towards • process certification, • regulatory requirements, • needs for improved efficiency, and • measurable quality • These demands require • better metadata, • finer granularity of information, • centralization, • process automation, • information ownership, and • traceability

10. Knowledge Management • Knowledge is rarely captured directly in business documents and is most often compiled indirectly by document authors • Information is gathered from multiple sources and subject matter experts and distilled into documents before it is thrown over the wall – the information is written and forgotten about • Over time, the knowledge loses relevance or is lost • The metamodel breaks content down into manageable chunks that can be controlled by the subject matter experts and compiled into traditional documents

11. Unified Content Strategy • Single-source authoring • has reached a state of maturity within technical publications • enable collaboration on content creation • Improves • content quality, • consistency, and • maintainability • requires a level of sophistication that eludes most business users

12. Granularity • Granularity of reuse within business documents appears to be more complex than in typical technical publications • Size of reusable components varies from a single-statement to collections of nested topics • Application of reusable components may be used across far more diverse audiences • Granularity must be defined as well by the ownership and lifecycle of the component within the metamodel • Information must be captured into a single source and managed according to robust rules for reuse using progressive disclosure to determine the granularity

13. Evolution of the Enterprise Topic • What is a topic? • fundamental building blocks used to capture knowledge about any given subject • a single definitive source of information • designed to be used and reused in their entirety or in part • independent of any containing document or map and can be used in any appropriate context

14. Content Lifecycle • Typical content lifecycle describes documents developed and stored in a repository • Topic-based lifecycle is similar in that documents are planned developed and stored in a repository as topics that can be reused • Enterprise Business Content Lifecycle describes a different process where topics are developed and stored in a repository. Documents are then created as needed using topics in the repository.

15. Enterprise Business Content Lifecycle Output: Information Product Repository: Information Core Input: Topics

16. Reusability

17. Traceability

18. Traceability • Businesses use many purpose-built applications and databases to manage business information such as: • Requirements management tools • Bug tracking systems • Software testing tools • The metamodel should incorporate traceability for business documents to integrate with these systems

19. Traceability in the Enterprise • Traceability is normally driven subjectively by the author creating cross-references and links to related content he or she is has written or is aware of • Content that flows together goes together in a document as it is created • Where content is topic-based rather than document-based, traceability to enterprise content is considerably more difficult without business rules for relationships • The metamodel establishes basic rules for traceability based upon the common flow of information in an enterprise with dependencies and ancestry

20. Content Classes • Early on in the discussion on topic specializations, the focus area discovered that content needed to be broken down into classes to describe its properties and behaviours • DITA had first dealt only with one class of content – the topic – which was a standalone chunk of content that existed outside of any single document • New innovations such as the DITA Bookmap introduced classes of content that did not fit with this description • This focus area has categorized content into four classes that describe the different properties of content

21. Content Classes I & II • Class I Content • Represents portable, non-contextual information topics living outside of documents. Class I Content requires specific sub-structures unique to the topic type. • For example: DITA concept, task, and reference • Class II Content • Represents non-portable, contextual information topics that resides only within a given document. Class II Content requires very general, common sub-structures. • For example: Executive summary, chapter summary, document foreword, dedication, etc

22. Content Classes III & IV • Class III Content • Represents boilerplate text that can reside outside of a content repository and may be produced automatically at publishing time. • For example: Legal disclaimer, company information, table of contents, index, advance organizer, cover page, etc • Class IV Content • Represents content needed to aggregate documents from the three previous classes of content including metadata about the document. • For example: DITA map or bookmap

23. Information Models • To identify the necessary information types needed to support business documents, the focus area will study available information models • DITA information model • Breaks information types into Topics • Information Mapping® • Breaks information types into Information Modules • Information Management Model • Breaks information types into Information Objects • This is not necessarily an exhaustive list of models and others may be looked at as they surface

24. Alarm Clock User Guide About Alarm Clocks Setting Clock Setting Wake Up Alarm Setting Radio Alarm Radio Settings Installing Batteries Battery Specifications 1) The DITA 1.0 Information Model • DITA was designed to support Task-based authoring methodology for end-user documentation • This approach consists primarily of identifying specific tasks users need to perform to be successful with their product • Concept and reference information is added to supplement the tasks and give the user better understanding of the product to improve likelihood of success

25. DITA Information Types • Class I • Procedural • Task • Descriptive • Reference • Explanatory • Concept • GlossEntry

26. DITA Bookmap • The Bookmap introduces new placeholders for topics that don’t ideally fit with the initial concepts of topics (or Class I Content) such as: • Class II Content – contextual content for the specific document • <dedication> • <bookabstract> • <preface> • Class III Content – boilerplate text common to many documents • <notices> • <colophon>

27. Limitations • While DITA can be manipulated to suit any output, it is often done at the expense of maintaining useful semantic mark up and consistency of content • Many DITA adopters have limited their deployment of information types to Concept and Task, where Task covers all procedural information and Concept covers everything else • Extension beyond task-based information types is highly desirable

28. 2) The Information Mapping® Approach • Owned by Information Mapping International nv of Belgium http://www.informationmapping.com/en • A scientifically-based method of structured communication • Developed by Harvard researcher and based on 40 years of research and application • Applied to all communication media - paper and electronic • Used in 30+ countries around the world • Communicates any and all complex information

29. Information Types (1 Block = 1 Purpose) • Categorize information based on its purpose for the user • Answer all user questions on any topic • Defined by one of six Information Types

30. Content Modules The results are content modules- precisely tagged pieces of metadata –that can be snapped together in any pattern to create an endless variety of documents

31. Document 1 The information blocks can combine like this ...

32. Document 2 Or like this, without rewriting any of them.

33. User question “What is the (value)?” “What must I do?” “How do I do it?” “How does it work?” “What does it look like?” “What is it?” Information Type Fact Principle Procedure Process Structure Concept Information Types

34. Presentation Modes for Information Types Each of the 6 Information Types has its own best way of presentation that visually reflects the purpose of that Type.

35. Example Fact • Content objects defined by their purpose or Information Type Process Fact Process Fact

36. This FACT block… re-displayed as… Presenting Fact

37. This PROCESS block… re-displayed as… Presenting Process

38. Result The results are tagged content objects … … here published in a paper document … … and displayed for easy comprehension.

39. Challenges • Information Mapping® models content at a different level of granularity to DITA • Information Mapping® focuses on the appearance of the rendered content more than the semantic markup of the source content • Information Mapping® isn’t widely used for structured authoring with XML • The methodologies are proprietary and any use of their approach may be limited

40. 3) The Enterprise Content Metamodel • Created in 2002 by Rob Hanna • Published in 2005 STC Conference Proceedings as the Information Management Modelhttp://www.ascan.ca/stc/whitepaper_imm.pdf

41. Scope • The Enterprise Business Metamodel • is designed specifically for business documents • attempts to integrate with rather than replace existing information systems • is not intended to dispense with vast amounts of dissimilar or unstructured information used within an enterprise

42. Modeling Enterprise Content • The model started as a map of dozens of dissimilar types of content found within an enterprise linked in various ways through traceability • For example • RFP elements were linked to proposal elements • Proposal elements were linked to requirement elements • Requirement elements were linked to design elements • Design elements were linked to specification elements • Specification elements were linked to procedural elements • As information changed in one element, other elements within the chain were impacted

43. Traceability of Class I Content • The model is based upon the traceability of information as it changes within an environment • Within any business, information changes regularly that impacts other sources of information • The model follows these changes from one information type to another as it may appear in any environment • The model deals strictly with Class I Content types

44. Model Construction • This model breaks down into 11 information types describing enterprise content • Each of the 11 types can be specialized into more specific types as needed • While not modeled after DITA, it shares very similar characteristics and should prove to be entirely compatible • Information types fall into one of four categories answering the “How”, “Who”, “What”, and “Why”

45. Why? How? What? Who? Enterprise Content Metamodel Objective Standard DITA Standard DITA Proposed Concept Concept Requirement Resource Governance Reference Task Design Ability Activity Reference Task Where? Resource Event Event Objective When? Event

46. Business Information Types Objective: Goal, Mission, Plan, Purpose, Aim, Course, Intention, Project, Target Intellectual Information Types Concept: Term, Definition, Idea, Image, Theory, Principle, Opinion, Generalization Governance: Policy, Rule, Guidelines, Tip, Warning, Legislation, FAQ, Code Task: Action, Procedure, Process, Instruction, Method, Mode, Routine Event: Report, Result, Incident, Issue, Outcome, Case, Scenario, Narrative, Essay, Background Info Type Synonyms and Specializations

47. Human Information Types Role: Resource, Person, Group, Team, Company, Persona, Community, Place, Facility Activity: Commitment, Task, Contract, Obligation, Duty, Function, Service Ability: Skill, Experience, Capability, Behaviour, Measure, Scale, Capacity, Competency Physical Information Types Requirement: Need, Requirement Specification, Condition, Criterion, Requisite Design: Outline, Code, Model, Plan, Flowchart, Diagram, Layout, Schema, Architecture, Logic, Design Specification Reference: Item Specification, Gap, Description, Object, Representation, Feature, Function Info Type Synonyms and Specializations

48. The Task information type is central to the model Task describes how something is performed Reference describes the tools used in the Task Task produces an Event Activity describes what is to be performed by the Task Governance describes limitations on the Task Concept provides terms for Governance Concept Governance Activity Reference Event Task-based Information Task

49. Concept Governance Event Task Type Activity Task Reference • Description • Based on the DITA Task topic type • Describes one or more steps needed to accomplish an action • Dependencies • Reference • Governance • Activity • Event • Examples • User procedures and Instructions • Processes • Test cases

50. Sample Markup <task> <title></title> <shortdesc></shortdesc> <taskbody> <prereq></prereq> <steps> <step><cmd></cmd></step> <step><cmd></cmd></step> </steps> </taskbody> <related-links></related-links> </task> Task can be used to create both procedure and process content. Sample Content Log onto the network Once logged on to the network, you will be able to work online. You must have received log-in details from IT before proceeding with your log-in attempt. Caution: Do not attempt to log onto the network without current login credentials. 1. Press <CTRL> + <ALT> + <DELETE> 2. Enter user name and password 3. Click Enter See also: Login Attempts Concept Governance Activity Reference Event Task Construction Task