S1000D Objections – a significant part of what I do here at Tech Data World is helping technical publications departments understand just what S1000D is, how and most importantly why this international specification is the leading tool of choice for technical publications in our market.
Helping department and project managers, business owners and IT departments understand the intricacies of S1000Dand where the possible return on investment may lay, is something I enjoy doing, but, I also add a touch of reality and some of the significant errors that I see projects make. Anyone who has sat in on one of my consultancies or training sessions, I am 100% open about the exponential effort and challenges we face when we use S1000D or similar approaches to our technical publications production strategies.
Often I see objections to using or adopting S1000D, even before I start speaking, and this has me thinking, just what are the complaints out there and why?
Something I encounter all of the time is a simple “our customer tells us to do it!” without reason or rhyme they merely will do as the customer asks, the risk of not doing so could range from financial penalties to just not getting the contract.
I see everything from the lack of specification understanding, perceived complexity to cost of software with everything in between. Usually, after a short discussion and sometimes interesting debate, I can balance the negatives with a positive or two. Convincing the most cynical minds that there may be full and varied benefits in adopting an S1000D strategy – yet there are still some that remain deeply entrenched in their belief that S1000D is anti-creativity (yes in tech pubs) and anti-flexibility and yes even anti-technical publications!
This study is why I want to ask you out there, what are your or what were your objections to adopting S1000D? Were you merely following instruction from your customer or do you understand the benefit that using specifications like S1000D deliver?
At TDW we will not share any of your responses or details for participating in this study; we will use the results of this study to produce a white paper that we will make available via our channels.
The survey is very brief and will take no more than five minutes of your time, and we have kept it short and to the point to capture the significant points that we feel are common in the market.
If you would prefer to send your comments into me here at Tech Data World – please email them through to memberservices@techdataworld.com, and they will be routed to me personally.
Many thanks and I look forward to receiving your responses!
Mike
