Doc Or Die

I've just read "The XML and Component Content Management Report 2008" from CMS Watch, an analyst firm whose name seems too narrow -- it watches a lot more than just content management systems. When I learned about this report I was eager to read it for two reasons. First, I've long read and respected Ann Rockley, who wrote the report –- she's probably the most highly regarded content management expert in the world (and she literally "wrote the book" on enterprise content management). Second, in a previous life I worked for a company called Passage Systems that would have been discussed in the report if it were still in business, so I was intrigued to imagine how we would have stacked up in the report.

(Thanks to web search, I was able to easily find an article I wrote in 1996 that says "In 1992 I co-founded Passage Systems, a consulting, software, and data conversion services company that helps companies make the "passage" from print to online publishing.")

I don't often rave about things I've read, but the "XML and Component Content Management Report" is an outstanding piece of work. I've seen many reviews of software products, but none has been as comprehensive and insightful as this one. Most reviews present a checklist without explaining the dimensions that frame the product comparison, leaving it to the reader to determine if the products are being compared against a necessary and sufficient set of attributes. Instead, Rockley spends 60 pages explaining the key concepts of component content management before mentioning any products at all. For example, she analyzes the standards of content management – DocBook, DITA, SCORM, and so on – in terms of their maturity and applicability so that a prospective purchaser of a CCMS can confidently assess vendor claims for standards compliance.

But the nugget in the report that justifies buying it is a set of content management scenarios that are clearly presented and then matrixed against the product comparison checklist. These include "Complex Reuse," "Complex Translation," "Regulatory," "DITA for Technical Documentation," "Enterprise Component Management," and several others. These scenarios take the pragmatic insights of the first 60 pages and apply them in reviews of every content management vendor I'd ever heard of and a dozen more that I hadn't.

This report is indispensable for anyone considering a component content management system. Every page is full of pragmatic best practice wisdom and just oozes an "I've been there, and you can trust what I say" feel. But I didn't expect anything else from Ann Rockley.

- Bob Glushko