Stubborn Susan und Shaky Steve. DITA-Typologie leicht gemacht

Sind Sie ein Trial-and-Error-Tom oder ein Jump-right-in-Joe? Und wissen Sie, was eine DITA-Typologie ist? Ich nicht, bisher jedenfalls. Frank Ralf hat's erfunden.

Unser Kollege Frank Ralf war bei der diesjährigen DITA Europe in München. In seinem Beitrag zum DemoJam stellte er die verschiedenen DITA-Typen vor und wie sich ihre Arbeitsweise und der daraus resultierende Erfolg (oder Nichterfolg) mit DITA in einem Diagramm abbilden lassen (y-Achse: Emotionen, x-Achse: Wissen). Erkennen Sie sich in einem der DITA-Typen wieder?

DITA Types - Dramatis Personae

Stubborn Susan

Stays put, won't write documentation at all, regardless of the format or tool. After all, you can just look at the code, can't you?

Trial-and-error Tom

Quickly gets the hang of the new DITA format, explores DITA by trial and error. If he doesn't know, he calls the support line. Often. But don't worry, he stays relaxed. The way he works keeps him happy and moves him horizontally (knowledge) over time.

Shaky Steve

Knows enough for his daily work. Is happy as long as it works; if not, he panics and his liking of DITA drops instantly. Support calls are always fire-fighting missions, so you better help him quickly. Shaky Steve moves heavily vertically (emotion) without making too much progress horizontally (knowledge).

Jump-right-in Joe

You don't ever hear from him again only to discover after two months that he has implemented a complex @conkeyref-mechnism for his DITA documentation and automatically builds release notes with Jenkins using his own DITA templates.

Grumpy Gary
But there's also a dark side of DITA. At the bottom of his heart, Grumpy Gary is convinced that topic-based documentation using XML is the right way to do. And he is very knowledge-able about everything XML. But the longer he studies DITA the more he recognizes that "all that glitters is not gold".

Enlightened Eliot

The state, all DITA users want to reach eventually.