Enterprise Content Metamodel: Information Type Definitions

1. Enterprise Content Metamodel: Information Type Definitions Specialization Focus Area Rob Hanna February 7, 2011

2. Agenda • Introduction • Describe Business Document Environment • Content Classes • Introduce 3 Content Models • DITA Information Model • Information Mapping™ • Enterprise Content Metamodel • Abstract Layer • Examples

3. Specialization Focus Area Enterprise BusDocs SC

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 and 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. Drivers Business Documents

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

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

13. Reusability

14. Traceability

15. 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

16. Separating Topics According to Behavior Content Classes

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. Examining Information Models

21. 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 Blocks • 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

22. Task-based User Technical Information DITA

23. 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

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

25. 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> • <booklist>

26. 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

27. Structured Business Documents Information Mapping™

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. 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

30. Presentation Modes for Information Types Each of the 6 Information Types has its own best practices for presentation that visually reflects the purpose of that type

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

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

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

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

35. 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

36. Content Ecosystem Enterprise Content Metamodel

37. 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

38. 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

39. 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”

40. 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

41. 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

42. Concept Resource Governance Ability Event Resource-based Information • Activity describes what is to be performed • Activity is performed by a Resource • Activity requires a certain Ability • Resource possesses given Ability Activity Task Reference Activity

43. Concept Requirement Resource Task Governance Activity Reference Ability Design Event Product-based Information • Reference describes a tool and its benefits and features • Design describes how the tool is built to Requirements • Requirement governs Design and functionality Reference

44. Objective describes the goals, business reasons, or mission affecting change Resources, Concepts, and Requirements are suited to meet an Objective Objectives may be related to previous Events Concept Requirement Resource Governance Resource Concept Requirement Activity Reference Ability Design Task Event Business-based Information Objective Event

45. Managing the Root of Inheritance Abstract Layer

46. Abstract Information Types • Upon examination of the semantic substructures for these 11 content types, we identified similarities between several of the types precipitating the creation of 6 abstract information types • The abstract information types are derived directly from the base topic type and form the basis for all information contained within the model • Procedural • Explanatory • Descriptive • Advisory • Temporal • Criterial

47. Advisory Governance Temporal Event Criterial Objective Requirement Ability Activity Procedural Task Explanatory Concept Design Descriptive Reference Resource Information Type Similarities

48. Inheritance from Abstract Layer Advisory

49. Business Document Examples

50. Business Document Examples • The objects described in the model can be used to create business documents • Business documents will contain a mix of content classes but will primarily consist of Class I content • The traceability and reuse potential for many of the objects is substantial • Presenting three possible examples: • Request for Proposal (RFP) • Software Incident Report • Meeting Minutes