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Thank you Robert and Sarah for your insights, much appreciated!
Robert, to answer your question I am using DITA now. Prior to this I had
three years of structured authoring experience with another tool (not DITA
based), plus 20 odd years in front-end web development.
With regard to your questions Sarah, I chose DITA and the related IDE.
There were several factors involved: cost of the tool, publishing in
multiple formats, localization, and company/documentation growth. (You make
an interesting point about overkill and the 2,500 pages -- makes me wish
I'd posted this question before starting the project.)
We're a small team and everyone works lean and mean, so I had to jump in
with both feet and make it happen. I didn't have a whole lot of time for
research, other than spending a month evaluating a DITA IDE that I liked
better than the structured authoring tool I'd used previously.
I was curious about the time frame though, and whether I had created
reasonable estimates for conversion of each guide. From your responses it
looks like I'm within range.
On Tue, Jan 14, 2020 at 12:55 AM <techwr-l-request -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. DITA writers: How long would you expect this legacy
> conversion to take? (chitechwriter)
> 2. Re: DITA writers: How long would you expect this legacy
> conversion to take? (Robert Lauriston)
> 3. OS X Mojave vs. VirtualBox (Robert Lauriston)
> 4. RE: Win7 (Janoff, Steven)
> 5. Re: Win7 (Gene Kim-Eng)
> 6. Re: OS X Mojave vs. VirtualBox (Robert Lauriston)
> 7. Re: DITA writers: How long would you expect this legacy
> conversion to take? (Sarah Lee Hauslinger)
> 8. Re: OS X Mojave vs. VirtualBox (Thorsten Konersmann)
> 9. Re: DITA writers: How long would you expect this legacy
> conversion to take? (Sarah Lee Hauslinger)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2020 08:02:01 -0600
> From: chitechwriter <chitechwriter -at- gmail -dot- com>
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: DITA writers: How long would you expect this legacy
> conversion to take?
> Message-ID:
> <CANWZuenTh9nuhWDtTJgiAaALpOPeLD3FL=
> qip3a_bVSnWKJvrA -at- mail -dot- gmail -dot- com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> Hi everyone, I have a question for DITA writers, especially those who have
> converted legacy content to a web-based customer help system.
>
>
> *How long would you expect a DITA conversion to take? *
>
> Here are some of the factors involved:
>
> - The tech writer is new to the company and has to learn: DITA, the DITA
> tool, the company's product offerings and the third-party platform
> they're
> built on.
>
>
> - There's no formal onboarding for new employees; this is a new position
> at a small company and involves a lot of trial and error -- getting to
> know
> the products, the company's inner workings, and the right people to
> approach with questions.
>
>
> - There is no existing infrastructure for a web-based help system -- it
> is the tech writer's responsibility to find the best solution.
>
>
> - The tech writer is also responsible for: Designing the look and feel
> of the help site, generating new images (both static screenshots and
> animated steps), and ensuring that the documentation is secured with a
> client login.
> - The login will be built from scratch by a developer, and the tech
> writer will need to incorporate the developer's scripting into the
> DITA
> project so that security gets baked into the output files.
>
>
> - The initial conversion consists of several product guides, around
> 300-400 pages total (there is other collateral that may eventually be
> added). The product guides are in a linear format and need to be
> outlined,
> broken down into topics, and reworked as necessary.
>
>
> - Other tasks before go-live include proofreading and editing the
> converted help documentation, and devising a peer review process.
> - The proofreading/editing falls to the tech writer, and the review
> process is somewhat of a challenge because this is a small team and
> everyone is swamped with their own work.
>
> *Sample time frames* *for a DITA conversion*:
>
> 1. Less than 6 months
> 2. Six to twelve months
> 3. Twelve to eighteen months
> 4. Other (please specify)
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2020 11:25:38 -0800
> From: Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>
> To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- techwr-l -dot- com>
> Subject: Re: DITA writers: How long would you expect this legacy
> conversion to take?
> Message-ID:
> <CAN3Yy4DY1cAm8RNUpAdch5=
> WwkGcQe73JTg9J3na2eSf_s8vZQ -at- mail -dot- gmail -dot- com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> For a very expeirenced, top-dollar writer who has built and maintained
> a DITA toolchain and associated web portal before, less than six
> months.
>
> For someone without such experience but of a very technical bent with
> a lot of ambition and aptitude, 18 months or longer, though it might
> be more likely that they'd get frustrated and use their newly acquired
> skills to get another job.
>
> Are you currently using DITA? If not, what?
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 7
> Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2020 13:08:37 -0800
> From: Sarah Lee Hauslinger <slhauslinger -at- gmail -dot- com>
> To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- techwr-l -dot- com>
> Subject: Re: DITA writers: How long would you expect this legacy
> conversion to take?
> Message-ID:
> <
> CAGCKL3_7XJEXO6_GRymtZk421Bdvxz_dMcfd0_MchBU-NCCcqw -at- mail -dot- gmail -dot- com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> After helming four large-scale DITA migrations over the past 10 years,
> here?s my take...
>
> I agree with Robert?s assessment that an absolute newbie would need 18
> months to learn DITA, do the research required to select the right
> authoring platform, and convert 400 pages of content. And without prior
> experience in DITA, there?s an extremely high likelihood that a system with
> slick marketing collateral and deft sales staff will win the bid...and said
> system ultimately will be far more costly and less effective than promised.
> Selecting a DITA authoring environment that fits company and content
> requirements is not a task for newbies.
>
> I?d say that for 400 pages of content, DITA is overkill. The upfront
> investment of time and money to get a good solid toolchain in place is way
> out of scope for that amount of content. My experience has been that ROI
> for a transition of this sort reaches break-even level when content volume
> rises above below 2,500 pages.
>
> Who decided DITA was the right publishing technology, and why? Has the
> company looked at other options with a shorter learning curve and better
> ROI for this level of content volume? Several such options include MadCap
> Flare, Adobe Technical Communication Suite, and MindTouch.
>
> </snip>
>
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