Hi Eric Agile, modular documentation, reuse ("bits of information about a product that could be shared in multiple manuals and possibly other documents"): all good reasons to "go DITA".
An agile User Story is a standalone feature that is meant to answer one customer need. Similarly, a DITA topic is a standalone piece of content that answers a single question, for example: - How can I do task X? - What is a given concept? - Where can I find a given component or software command? So, in DITA, the idea is that you write standalone topics, which you then assemble into a DITA map. A DITA map corresponds (more or less) to a FrameMaker book, but the difference is that each DITA topic is a separate XML file, whereas the components in a FrameMaker book are usually chapters in a binary FrameMaker format. This means that reusing information in unstructured (binary) FrameMaker is more difficult than it is in DITA. In DITA, you can reuse topics as a whole in various DITA maps, but you can also reuse parts of a topic, such as a section of a topic or even individual sentences or paragraphs. You are already using unstructured Frame 12, which supports DITA, and the DITA-FMx plugin supports DITA even better: http://leximation.com/dita-fmx/featurecomparison.php Y ou can google "DITA" and "Agile" and you'll find lots of pointers, but here are some interesting ones: - www.embedded.com/design/prototyping-and-development/4230902/DITA-and-the-death-of-technical-documentation-as-we-know-it - www.slideshare.net/IXIASOFT/agile-content-development-and-the-ixiasoft-dita-cms?qid=443e7abe-6abe-4772-866b-b627a215cea9&v=default&b=&from_search=2 - http://www.slideshare.net/nabayanroy/agile-meets-dita-developing-user-documentation-in-an-agile-environment?qid=7d2e654f-15a6-48a4-ae87-4f13f669b22f&v=qf1&b=&from_search=1 And if you'd like to see how your content would look like in DITA, feel free to send me a sample FrameMaker book. Cheers -- Yves Barbion www.scripto.nu
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