Book Review: Implementing a Unified Content Strategy

Information Management Journal, Sep/Oct 2004 by Taylor, Sheila

Book Review: Implementing a Unified Content Strategy TITLE: Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy AUTHORS: Ann Rockley, Pamela Kostur, and Steve Manning ISBN: 0-7357-1306-5 PUBLISHER: New Riders Publishing PUBLICATION DATE: 2003 LENGTH: 565 pages PRICE: $27.19 U.S. SOURCE: www.Amazon.com

Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy defines content as the words, phrases, sentences, charts, and graphs created by authors that make up information products such as user guides, brochures, press releases, Web site content, and technical specifications.

Drawing on their technical writing and documentation backgrounds, the authors present a methodology by which organizations can develop a unified content strategy that identifies their content requirements, creates consistently structured content for reuse, manages content in a definitive source, and assembles content on demand to meet customers' needs.

The book is divided into six parts. Part one, "The Basis of a Unified Content Strategy," introduces the causes (e.g. lack of awareness of other initiatives) and effects (e.g. lack of standardization and consistency) of the content silos that occur when authors working in isolation from other authors within an organization create and recreate content, often with changes or differences at each iteration. This part also examines the business imperatives for content reuse (the practice of using existing content components to develop new "documents"), thus enabling organizations to leverage the time invested in authoring content. The section also illustrates how to calculate the return on investment for a unified content strategy using a fictitious company as an example.

Part two, "Performing a Substantive Audit - Determining Business Requirements," shows how to analyze an organization's content in order to formulate recommendations for a new unified content life cycle. The authors discuss how to identify organizational dangers, opportunities, and strengths and how to analyze the content life cycle (create, review, manage, deliver) to identify the unified processes an organization needs to ensure that everyone who develops, stores, and publishes content does it the same way - or at least is able to interact effectively and share content. Part two includes a methodology for conducting a content audit to analyze how content is used, reused, and delivered to various audiences and provides content audit findings for five fictional companies.

Part three, "Design," begins by illustrating the use of information modeling to identify and document the framework on which an organization's content reuse strategy will be based. While models are an important design element, the authors also illustrate the importance of identifying and classifying content (and individual elements within it) using metadata to provide for easy retrieval and reuse and offer strategies for personalizing content (dynamic content) to further help users find what they need, when they need it. The authors also address designing internal processes using workflow to ensure all tasks are completed in the right order (e.g. add metadata before content is published) and discuss factors affecting content design implementation (e.g. budget).

Part four, "Tools and Technologies," examines the steps in the evaluation process from identifying needs through conducting a proof of concept of a selected technology. The authors also explore the pros and cons of using extensible markup language (XML)based tools and describe the functionality of the technologies (authoring, content management, workflow, and delivery) that support a unified content life cycle.

In part five, "Moving to a Unified Content Strategy," the authors examine organizational issues that should be addressed when implementing a unified content strategy. The authors also explore the human efforts required by collaborative authoring and address the importance of separating content from format so that the same content can be used in different media. The change management issues of implementing a unified content strategy are explored and suggestions are offered for overcoming resistance. Also identified are the new skill sets as well as new and modified roles needed to support execution of the strategy. This part concludes by examining the importance of developing a transition plan to implement a unified content strategy.

Part six contains a glossary, bibliography, and index. Appendices include a checklist for implementing a unified content strategy, guidelines for writing for multiple media, a list of sample products and vendors for each of the key technology areas, a checklist of the tools required to implement a unified content strategy, and a guide to content relationships.

Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy comprehensively examines the methodologies, processes, and tools required to better manage an organization's content life cycle. It targets three audiences: