Content Reuse
Pamela Kostur is a partner at Parallax Communications and a recognized content management expert.
Why Reuse?
There are many reasons to reuse content in your documentaiton. It's efficient, it eliminates duplication and inconsistency, its frees you from having to create content that already exists, it allows you to spend more time creating unique content, and it can enable you to improve your content.
Reusing content also saves money because it reduces writing, review, and translation costs. It can also save money indirectly by reducing calls to support centres, and preventing legal problems. One medical company was succesfully sued because of inconsistencies between their printed guide and website.
Information Nightmares
There are many examples available of content not being reused, and the unfortunate results. These include inconsistenices in product descriptions, food recipes, and technical instructions. Inconsistency is to be avoided at all costs, because it makes the user have to work to understand the information by forcing them to "rewrite" it in their heads. Also, users may not interpret the information correctly, leading to chaos and confusion.
Implementing Reuse
To begin to implement a content reuse strategy, you compare potentially common content and determine the differences. You identify the common elements, then design the element so that it will fit with your information requirements. An information element (or module) can be any size from a step to a chapter. Note that the modules are ultimately based on the user's needs, not the writers!
Structure
Structure refers to how the various information products are assembled. You carefully document the structure, describing what components a module requires and any variations depending on how the information is delivered, for example printed vs. online. You can assign rules and conditions for what each module can contain. Consistency is the key in developing and managing proper structure.
Usability
Note that reuse does not equal "usable". Reusing unusable content simply makes it consistently unusable! You still need to put the content in your structure consistently and use detailed writing guidelines. Standards need to be commonly understood and shared by all the writers.
Summing up, writing for reuse doesn’t just happen; you have to plan for it. The effort and cost required may be large, but so is the payoff. Documentation is produced more quickly and consistently, and at a higher quality.
