English 5387: Publications Management - Progress Posting 11

Question: From Hackos's list of lessons learned review questions under item 7 on pp. 585-6, briefly answer each of the six short questions, as they apply to your documentation project and process.
1. What did we do right?
For this project, I created and implemented a project plan that was highly dependent on technical competencies. I also had a secondary plan that would allow me to change course if needed because of extreme delays, likely resulting from the technical competency dependence. Since I needed to switch to the second strategy, it was good that I had a secondary plan ready to be implemented.
2. What could we do better?
I could have made the switch to the secondary plan earlier to avoid straining the schedule and getting behind, which I have done. By sticking to the initial plan, I learned a great deal about XSLT, but I did not progress the project and lost ground on the schedule.
3. Where did the process not work?
Since I was the only team member, the project was reliant on my schedule. This resulted in stress to meet deadlines when other projects intruded onto the scheduled time for this project. In addition, when I ran into technical walls, I had to work to overcome the situation, which resulted in strain on the timeline.
4. How can we build on the actions that led to success?
I could have switched to the secondary plan sooner or prepared a tertiary plan in case the secondary plan had failed. I should also have designed the schedule to create more wiggle room for other obligations that intruded onto the timeline.
5. How can we change the actions that caused the problems or failures?
My failures related to time management and technical competencies. I need to build more time into the schedule for developing technical knowledge or go with more familiar technologies for the entire plan.
6. What would we do if we had no barriers?
If I had no budget constraints, I would have used a more robust xml editor. If I had no time issues, I would have been able to stick with the initial plan and use xml single sourcing with xslt to create both deliverables.

English 5387: Publications Management - Progress Posting 10

Question: As you begin moving towards the production (delivery) phase of your single-sourcing projects, what items are on your 'punch list' or 'hit list'. Be as detailed as possible and list at least a dozen items.
1. Check all links and linked text. These should be functional and properly styled. No punctuation should be included in the link text.
2. Check the order of the sections to confirm that each section flows properly. Sections that do not seem to be placed properly at this time include the Just Accepted Manuscripts section, the Online Publication section, and perhaps the intellectual property information.
3. Confirm styling and order of internal navigation links. This is of special concern if I move sections around for improved flow.
4. Double check that both documents contain all the same information and that nothing has been left out of either document.
5. Ensure that the presentation and flow is appropriate for each type of deliverable. They do not need to be the same as long as all the information is present.
6. Ensure that I achieved the appropriate level of interactivity for each deliverable -- for the printer-friendly deliverable, linked text is not appropriate, and I need to include the web link information in parenthesis next to what would be linked text in the HTML deliverable.
7. Double check that the CSS is properly linking and that all components are uploaded and functional.
8. Add a link for the printer-friendly version to the HTML deliverable. The printer-friendly version needs to be easily accessible from the HTML deliverable. For our company viewpoint, we have been trying to drive users to the HTML to limit printing and waste of paper and also to enhance the author experience via functional links. Therefore, the main link should be to the HTML deliverable with a secondary link to the printable deliverable.
9. Do last minute editing scans. Make sure that all references to Article say Article, Letter say Letter, etc.
10. Check display of both deliverables on multiple internet browsers and on both Mac and PC.
11. Format print deliverable as PDF to ensure cheap and easy accessibility.
12. Find acceptable substitute graphics to take place of copyrighted company logos. I cannot use the company logos for school work. If nothing seems to be appropriate, replace logos with text.
13. Do Accessibility scan through W3C webpage.

English 5387: Publications Management - Progress Posting 9

Question: Where are you experiencing quality issues in your projects? Identify one or two specific examples. What are some strategies for addressing them?

My first quality issue is ensuring functional links. Since the document is fairly static, it is easy to overlook dead links. I will need to ensure that the links included in the original document are still accurate and functional. Dead links or inaccurate links are a large problem because they give an incorrect impression to the customer. They show a lack of consideration, care, and currency in a document. Part of the step of making sure the links work, pulls in a technical issue in the XML, the conversion of the links from the XML to the HTML in XSLT. I cannot allow the technical focus to distract me from the content of the links. I must be able to track down the source of any problems in the links to either a technical issue or a link content issue and resolve the issue appropriately. Then resolve the issue by either replacing the link or altering the poor code.
A second quality issue for my project revolves around the set text. With the vast majority of the text for this document being set by an outside source, I have little I can alter. However, this does not mean that I should entirely disregard the content, which may be a temptation, especially as I zero in on other more pressing problems in the schedule. Ideally, I should be able to flag content that is not clear and send it back to the original author for clarification. For this project, I may need to do that clarification myself since I do not have access to other team members, while noting that the vast majority of the text must remain as-is.

English 5387: Publications Management - Progress Posting 8

Question: Working with your XML document from last week's posting exercise, create a DTD and a basic CSS. You may embed your DTD in the XML document. For the CSS, create the stylesheet as a separate file and add a line to reference it in your XML document.

My XML file with DTD and linked CSS is available at http://www.scruffypuphotdogs.com/author_notice_css.xml. The CSS itself is available at http://www.scruffypuphotdogs.com/author_notice_format1.css. My CSS is far from where I want it to be, but I feel that it fits the constraints of the blog spot. I need to do some more work to get some of the functionality that I desire, for example, pulling in the @type in sec as the heading for each section, altering the after punctuation for the last author/last editor, creating a handing indent, making functional links, etc.

For this type of functionality, I feel that I need to explore XSLT further. It will likely take a combination of XSLT and CSS to create my desired products. However, for the final assignment, I may need to move away from XML because of technical limitations and create the two products in more familiar ways to get the functionality I need for the web product and for the printer-friendly product.

Note Added on Tuesday, November 1: I have continued to make some changes to the CSS since I initially posted it on October 31 and will continue to make changes.

Second Note Added on Tuesday, November 1: Firefox will allow you to use a :before CSS command with your root note, as will the browser in my phone. IE, Safari, and Chrome will not.

English 5387: Publications Management - Progress Posting 7

Question: Create a basic XML document, using at least five unique elements and five complete data sets. Post a link to this exercise on your blog along with the answer to this question: How might XML a viable technology for use in one of the deliverables for your single-sourcing project?

The basic XML document is located at http://www.scruffypuphotdogs.com/author_notice.xml. I used some of the paragraphs from the Notice to Authors document that I am using for my final project for my data. However, I am not sure that XML is the most appropriate choice for my Notice to Authors project in the small scale and with the technology currently available to me. In my image for the large scale project, I see my company using the same technology that we use to produce books. Each chapter in the book is created as an XML document and then it is pulled together into a whole at the end. I see us assembling each section of the NTA separately and pulling the required sections for each journal, along with journal specific information, into the final document. On the large scale, this makes sense.

On the small scale of this project, not so much.