Centralized versus Distributed Organizational Structures  

The nature of a corporation and its product line(s) influences the optimal structure for your information-development organization. When lines of business are unrelated, information-development organizations may best function independently; when lines of business are interrelated, the groups need a unified strategy. While favored by product developers and business leaders, distributed structures can produce inconsistent information quality to customers. Centralized organizations can meet customer needs, but they are often perceived as focusing on publication quality rather than content. The best solution may be a hybrid structure that takes advantage of the strengths of both.

Hackos, JoAnn T. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Information Design>Workflow

Information Design Process  

Covers the stages in the information design process of: discovery, analysis, prototyping and review.

Deshpande, Shashank. STC India (2003). Presentations>Information Design>Workflow

Information Process Reengineering  

Information process reengineering means making fundamental changes to how you create, maintain, deliver, and distribute information so that you meet business objectives. It is not simply incorporating new tools or technologies into a current information development and distribution environment. The changes made as a result of reengineering are much broader and more significant; they are revolutionary. The phases you move through as you reengineer are not revolutionary. In fact, to many the phases are quite familiar: design, pilot, refine, roll out. It’s not how you approach reengineering but rather what you end up with when you’re done that revolutionizes your business.

Currie, Cynthia C. and Thomas J. Vallone. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Information Design>Workflow

Integrating Information Architecture into Your Information Development Processes  

The most critical and time-consuming aspect of your decision to adopt information architecture as a backbone of your information development process might not be the adoption of new guidelines or tools, but moving the mindset and culture of the organization so that it can operate effectively in the new paradigm. Using examples from real experiences, the authors of this paper describe the organizational 'culture shock' that can occur when a team or organization moves to an information-architected model for content delivery--the likely pitfalls and some ways to overcome them.

Kowalski, Lee Anne, Andrea Ames, Michelle Corbin and David McCaleb. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Information Design>Workflow

It's All in the Process  

Information design, according to practitioners like the Berlin-, London-, and San Francisco-based firm MetaDesign, is about more than just conveying complex information clearly. To work well, it has to be a process in which designers and clients act as partners.

Senechal, Ann. Adobe Magazine (1997). Design>Information Design>Workflow

Marking Up Bureaucracy

Needing to cope with its enormous needs for document and data exchange, the United States is looking more and more to XML. Paul Ford explains what happens when Washington meets markup.

Ford, Paul. XML.com (2003). Articles>Information Design>Workflow>Government

Requirements of Content Management Systems: Definition According to Need

In all companies, the requirements of an editorial system are worked out individually from the analysis of existing functioning and the definition of editorial and publication processes required in the future. The first important criteria for analysis are change frequencies and degree of reuse of the published information. The description of the information types as well as translation sequences constitute another starting point for the definition of a modular work process (single-source principle) and publication options (cross-media publishing).

Ziegler, Wolfgang. tekom (2005). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Workflow

The Power of Process, The Perils of Process

Traditionally, information architects and designers (UI, visual, ID) are creatures of process. We generally work in prescribed ways—discover, design, validate, repeat. We sketch first, then create rough flows and then finetuned detailed wireframes and mocks. This usually works well, once accepted, and most companies—whether in-house teams or consultancies—work along similar lines. In my experience, I have found that creating and documenting process has been a good exercise to help institutionalize ways of working, to help educate new team members as well as to unveil the mysteries of what we do for executives, product folks, and development teams.

Malone, Erin. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Information Design>Workflow

Is It Time for a New Tool?

With the move to XML, DITA, and other new standards, the entry cost for new tools is lower relative to established tools like Word and FrameMaker, since all tools need to invest to implement these new standards. New workflows are emerging in some cases, such as topic-based authoring and shared content, which give new tools a distinct advantage. The new tools can start with the new paradigm, rather than trying to migrate existing content and provide “backward” compatibility.

Answers for All (2008). Articles>Information Design>XML>Workflow

Automate Your Publishing

Discusses the strategic importance of XML, illustrating it with an application they built to address the growing needs of the DaimlerChrysler MOPAR division. Mr. Haslam will share with you the challenges they faced and how they were solved as well as provide the metrics being used to validate the project's success.

Haslam, David. IDEAlliance (2004). Articles>Information Design>Workflow>XML

Records, Tags and Pipelines

Serving XML is a markup language for expressing XML pipelines, and an extendible Java framework for defining the elements of the language. It provides a markup language for expressing flat-XML, XML-flat, flat-flat, and XML-XML transformations in pipelines. This article provides a brief introduction to the vocabulary of this language, and some examples of its flat-XML capabilities.

Parker, Daniel. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML>Workflow

XML Pipeline Processing

Pipeline processing is a powerful programming technique that can lead to programs that are easier to maintain and enhance and monolithic imperative programs. Developers familiar with the power of pipeline operations central to the UNIX operating system know how simple, modular tools can be chained together to accomplish a wide variety of complex tasks. XSLT pipelines offer the same advantage for XML transformation. Where UNIX pipelines are based around standard input and output of lines of text, XSLT pipelines rely on the structure of well-formed XML between stages. The panel members will demonstrate the value of a pipeline processing approach and discuss implementation specifics.

Page, Sam and Norman Walsh. XML 2006 (2006). Articles>Information Design>XML>Workflow