Successful Strategies for Continuous Improvement

By Marta Rauch

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Contents

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• Introduction
• Initiative #1: Production Process Improvements
• Initiative #2: Translation Process Improvements
• Initiative #3: Customer Partnering
• Summary
• References

Introduction    

Successful information development teams continually adapt processes and products in addition to producing deliverables on time and within budget. Although challenging, such adaptations are necessary to maintain a competitive advantage in today's global marketplace.

To meet these challenges, our department of 40 employees, including information developers, tools experts, editors, and managers, implemented an Initiatives program that ensures continuous improvement to processes, products, and skill sets for the department and individual contributors while increasing customer satisfaction.

This paper describes how our department used its Initiatives program to adapt to challenges such as new requirements for scheduling, deliverables, and localization-while continuously delivering high-quality product documentation deliverables. We implemented XML, content management, and automation to shorten development time and lower the cost of production; word-reduction to cut localization costs; and a Customer Partnering program to ensure global customer satisfaction.

This type of Initiatives program can be applied at other companies, and can include a wide variety of projects that address business needs and add value to the organization. In this paper, we describe three successful initiatives, the challenges they addressed, and the solutions they provided.

Initiative #1: Production Process Improvements    

Challenge: Less time, more deliverables.
Solution: Convert to XML, implement content management, and automate production processes

To improve the production process, we split the tasks into several smaller initiatives:

• Templates and style sheets
• FrameMaker-to-XML conversion
• Content management
• Standard file names, directories
• Automation
• Quality testing
• Arbortext Editor training
• Troubleshooting, FAQ
• XML User's Guide, best practices

Writers chose the initiatives they wanted to work on, and rotated into the project as time allowed with their regularly scheduled deliverables. Teams tracked their status on the department's internal wiki pages to provide visibility into the progress of each initiative.

Improvements from our production process initiative include:

• Reduced time and cost for multiple output formats
• Production and formatting time down 47%
• Troubleshooting time down 85%
• Faster production; in one day, scripts rendered 300 translated files to generate 453 localized deliverables (321 help systems, 132 PDF guides)

Initiative #2: Translation Process Improvements    

Challenge: Reduce translation time and cost
Solution: Reduce words in the source

To improve the translation process, we split the tasks into several smaller initiatives, including a common glossary for products and documentation, and word reduction of source files.

To produce a common glossary, one writer on each product team led terminology reviews, enlisting participation from product managers, testers, developers, trainers, and customer support. This eliminated redundancies and discrepancies between similar terms. The result was a unified product glossary that saved translation costs because it was translated once and published universally across products and documents.

To reduce words, a team of writers and editors researched word-reduction methods, and developed techniques to trim excess words without removing necessary content.

In 2006, our department estimated the following savings for word-reducing one of our 300-page documents, which had an average of 240 words per page, for 13 languages.

% Words Reduced in One Guide	Estimated Savings per Language	Estimated Savings for All Languages
10%	$2,880	$37,440
20%	$5,760	$74,880
30%	$8,640	$112,320
40%	$11,520	$149,760
50%	$14,400	$187,200

(Note that these dollar figures are rough estimates. Actual savings depend on factors such as the degree to which translation memory is used, whether the document is receiving its first or second translation, and the nature of the reduction.)

Clearly, it pays to reduce words. Exponential economies of scale can be achieved by applying the savings for one document across several translated products, documentation sets, and languages.

Improvements from our translation initiative include:

• Translation cost savings of 24% for each of the 13 languages we translated to at the time
• Faster translation, faster to market
• Improved usability
• Stretched budget further, allowing us to translate to many new languages; this led to sales in new geographies and increased corporate revenue

Initiative #3: Customer Partnering    

Challenge: Better understanding of customers to enhance user experience
Solution: Customer partnering initiative

To meet the challenge of understanding internal and external customer requirements, our department uses several methods to gather information and conduct user analysis. For example, we interact with customers on our online technical forums and social networks, including LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. We also review customer comments and ratings of our documentation, and use web analytics to track usage on our online libraries. In addition, we collaborate with customer-facing groups such as training and technical support, provide surveys and questionnaires, visit customer sites to watch how people use our products, and conduct focus groups and usability tests.

To enhance user experience, we implemented a Customer Partnering initiative. To do this, we first created an implementation plan. We worked with product management, sales, training, and customer support to select customers who represented an appropriate mix of companies, industries, products, and version levels. We contacted these customers, conducted surveys to gain more information, and invited selected customers to join our customer partnering group and participate in our meetings.

To prepare for the first meeting, we designed focused, task-oriented activities for customers, and invited participants to a web conference. During the meeting, we presented documentation prototypes to get early feedback, which enabled us to incorporate customer input early in the development cycle. To enhance feedback during brainstorming sessions, we used Tony Buzan's iMindMap tool. After each meeting, we analyzed input to determine action items and sent follow-up communications to customers.

Figure 1: Brainstorning with Tony Buzan's Mind Map

Meeting topics have provided feedback on a wide variety of topics, including:

• Our social media strategies
• Our online documentation forums
• Our conversion to Kindle-compatible .MOBI files that make files available for Kindle, and can also be used on iPad, tablets, and smart phones such as Android and iPhone.

Figure 2: Feedback on Social Media

Figure 3: Feedback on Kindle-Compatible .MOBI Files

Through the Customer Partnering initiative, we now have a more comprehensive understanding of our customer requirements. This enables us to refine the way we meet customer needs.

We're also gratified that customers appreciate the Customer Partnering program. For example, customers expressed that it is "very worthwhile" and "a good use of an hour per month." Another stated that, "we appreciate the effort that goes into this program, since documentation tends to be not as well addressed with most software vendors. This [Customer Partnering program] is very unique, and we feel it is beneficial."

Improvements from our Customer Partnering initiative include:

• Greater customer insight
• Early feedback on prototypes
• Satisfied customers
• Reduced tech support calls
• Competitive advantage
• Greater license revenue
• Increased sales

Summary    

The initiative program described in this paper enables our department to adapt effectively to changing project requirements while delivering high-quality documentation on time and within budget. The initiative program enables continuous improvement, allowing us to continually enhance products and processes.

This type of an initiative program can be implemented successfully at other companies. Doing so can strengthen your products and processes and maximize your ability to meet project challenges and provide high-quality customer solutions. Implementing continuous improvement increases quality over time. This can give your team a competitive advantage in today's market, and help you meet challenges of the future.

References    

1. Bessant, J., Caffyn, S., Gilbert, J., Harding, R., and Webb, S., "Rediscovering Continuous Improvement," Center for Business Research, The Business School, University of Brighton., UK, 2002.
2. Feigenbaum, Armand V., "Total Quality Management," Encyclopedia of Software Engineering, 2002.
3. Fisher, Lori and Bennion, Lindsay, "Organizational Implications of the Future Development of Technical Communication: Fostering Communities of Practice in the Workplace." Technical Communication, Society for Technical Communication, vol.52, no. 3, August 2005, pp. 277-288.
4. Hackos, JoAnn, "Customer Partnering: A New Tool for Analyzing User Needs," Presentation by CIDM, Center for Information-Development Management, Comtech Services, Inc., 2005.
5. Hackos, JoAnn, "Building a Collaborative Team Environment," CIDM, Center for Information-Development Management News, Comtech Services, Inc., Denver, CO. November, 2007.
6. Hackos, JoAnn, Information development: Managing your information development projects, portfolio, and people, chapter 13, "Promoting Innovation of Information," Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Press, 2007.
7. Holdaway, Jill, Rauch, Marta, and Flink, Lynn, "Excellent Adaptations: Managing Projects through Changing Technologies, Teams, and Clients" IEEE IPCC 2009 proceedings, Honolulu, HI. July, 2009.
8. Kaye, Mike and Anderson, Rosalyn ,"Continuous Improvement: The Ten Essential Criteria," International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 16 Issue 5, 1999.
9. Rauch, Marta, "Adapting to Change through an Initiatives Program," Best Practices, Volume 11, Issue 6, The Center for Information-Development Management, December, 2009. Available: http://www.infomanagementcenter.com/members/pdfs/reprints/BP09-12MRauch.pdf.
10. Rauch, Marta, Morrison, Cheryl, and Goetz, Aline, "Are We There Yet? An Examination of Where We've Been and Where We're Headed as Technical Communicators," IEEE PCS IPCC 2010 proceedings, Enschede, The Netherlands. July, 2010.
11. Rauch, Marta, Chappell, Gail, "Do Better: Taking Your Innovative Documentation to the Next Level," Society for Technical Communication Webinar, February, 2011.

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Marta Rauch leads the Planning information development team at Oracle, where she helps drive innovations that enhance product quality and improve customer satisfaction. This year she gave STC webinars on innovative documentation and continuous improvement, and presented at Content Management Strategies/DITA, STC 2011 Summit, and IEEE IPCC. In 2010 and 2009, she presented at conferences in the Netherlands and Hawaii. Her publications include an article on Adapting to Change in the Best Practices journal of the Center for Information-Development Management. With over 20 years of experience in technical communication, Marta has received 15 STC awards for individual and team projects at the local, national, and international level. An STC senior member and mentor for the Silicon Valley Chapter, she holds a Certificate in Technical Writing from the University of California Extension and a BA from Stanford University.

Marta Rauch
Principal Information Developer,
Planning ID Team Lead
Oracle
5450 Great America Parkway
Santa Clara, CA 95054 USA
LinkedIn: martarauch Google+: +martarauch
Twitter: martarauch