Switching to Single Sourcing: Not a Light Decision

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 | Technical Communication

I was out of town over the weekend, and I managed to post once. But I came back pretty far behind in my Google Reader. An April 21st post from Communications from DMN reminded me of an article I read in STC‘s Intercom magazine issue on DITA over the weekend.

I wrote a post on the subject of single sourcing recently with some of the same sentiments as the DMN post, but Scott made some other points that I agree with. Basically, don’t jump on the single sourcing bandwagon without thorough analysis, and at the end of the day, your content management methods are transparent to the consumer of your information. Single sourcing exists for the benefit of the writer, not the user, at least not directly. (You could argue that if the writer is working more efficiently, the user benefits.)

However, Sarah O’Keefe’s Intercom article, The Hidden Cost of DITA, did make me think about one pro of single sourcing: You have fewer places to update when you have to make changes. Currently, with a couple of ongoing development projects I’m on, when there’s a change to existing functionality, I have to think about the corresponding effects in the documentation. Due to the fact that the projects are ongoing, I’ve written the documentation recently enough that I can usually locate those places quickly. But what about later on, when my memory isn’t so fresh? Or when someone else has to take over maintenance of the material?

And so the discussion continues. But where I work, we tend to watch what’s happening in the industry and let the best practices come out on top rather than taking hold of something because it’s the rage. I think that’s a comfortable place to be. In the end, it’s probably the least expensive because we can carefully weigh pros and cons of switching our methods. If a craze passes before your analysis is done, you’ll probably be glad you took the time to do it. If the hype continues, there may be some substance behind it.

Bottom line is that switching to single sourcing schemas like DITA is not a decision to be made lightly. Remember, your users probably won’t know the difference if your strategy doesn’t affect your content.

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