A framework for variable content document generation with multiple actors

“NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Information and Software Technology. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Information and Software Technology, Volume 56, Issue 9, September 2014, Pages 1101–1121 DOI10.1016/j.infsof.2013.12.006Context - Advances in customization have highlighted the need for tools supporting variable content document management and generation in many domains. Current tools allow the generation of highly customized documents that are variable in both content and layout. However, most frameworks are technology-oriented, and their use requires advanced skills in implementation-related tools, which means their use by end users (i.e. document designers) is severely limited. Objective - Starting from past and current trends for customized document authoring, our goal is to provide a document generation alternative in which variants are specified at a high level of abstraction and content reuse can be maximized in high variability scenarios. Method Based on our experience in Document Engineering, we identified areas in the variable content document management and generation field open to further improvement. We first classified the primary sources of variability in document composition processes and then developed a methodology, which we called DPL based on Software Product Lines principles to support document generation in high variability scenarios. Results - In order to validate the applicability of our methodology we implemented a tool DPLfw to carry out DPL processes. After using this in different scenarios, we compared our proposal with other state-of-the-art tools for variable content document management and generation. Conclusion - The DPLfw showed a good capacity for the automatic generation of variable content documents equal to or in some cases surpassing other currently available approaches. To the best of our knowledge, DPLfw is the only framework that combines variable content and document workflow facilities, easing the generation of variable content documents in which multiple actors play different roles.This work has been partially funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad under Grant TIPEx (TIN2010-19859-C03-03).Gómez Llana, A.; Penadés Gramage, MC.; Canos Cerda, JH.; Borges, MR.; Llavador Campos, M. (2014). A framework for variable content document generation with multiple actors. Information and Software Technology. 56(9):1101-1121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2013.12.006S1101112156

Using and advancing DITA XML : A case study of evaluating DITA-authored customer documentation

In today’s world, customer documentation for products must comply with the changing needs of the users, who want to access and consume information effortlessly as soon as they need it. Traditional documentation strategies such as desktop publishing and linear writing have been challenged by the emerging technologies in technical communication that emphasize modularity, flexibility and efficiency from both the users and the technical writers’ perspectives. The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is one of the most interesting technologies within the technical communication field. The theoretical framework of this study is based on markup languages – especially DITA – and various perspectives of technical writing, such as topic-based writing, single-sourcing and minimalism. The features of DITA and the best practices of structured writing offer a lucrative starting point for addressing the highly practical research question of this study, namely how DITA XML has been used. This thesis is done in collaboration with a large company’s business unit that produces highly complex products and whose technical documentation strategy includes writing use case-based DITA topics. Now, the unit has initiated a transformation project whose goal is to evolve the customer documentation, and this thesis is a part of this project. The research problem of this thesis was approached by conducting a heuristic evaluation by using the DITA heuristics that were created as a part of this study, as such heuristics did not exist yet. The heuristics are based on both literature and practical experience on authoring technical documentation in DITA, as well as the business unit’s internal guidelines and discussions with a senior documentation specialist with extensive knowledge and competencies of the themes of this thesis. The DITA heuristics will later serve as a basis for a tool for the technical writers at the unit. The research data comprises 80 DITA XML modules, 40 of which contain descriptive, conceptual information (DITA concept topics) while the remaining 40 guide the users on carrying out procedures (DITA task topics). The sample data dates to 2021, and it was collected from the customer documentation of four different software components. The research shows that DITA can be used in various ways to author technical documentation, but some practices conform better to the principles of the DITA standard as well as the guidelines of structured, modular documentation. The most central issues include semantic markup, information typing and minimalism, especially task-orientation. Moreover, conducting a heuristic evaluation with a customized heuristics list proved to be an effective method for assessing the practices of authoring customer documentation in DITA. The results of this thesis provide valuable information for the business unit’s endeavors in terms of evolving their customer documentation content and presentation as well as supporting technical writers. The results of this thesis can be used internally in the business unit as a part of their transformation project regarding the usability and user-centeredness of their customer documentation. As a continuum to this study, technical writers who use DITA could be researched in terms of how they perceive DITA and structured authoring to increase the knowledge of how these themes are regarded among technical documentation experts today.Asiakasdokumentaation käyttäjät sekä heidän tapansa ja tarpeensa ovat muuttuneet ajan saatossa, minkä seurauksena myös itse dokumentaatio on muuttunut. Teknisen viestinnän alalla on havaittu, että käyttäjät haluavat saada tarvitsemansa tiedon nopeasti juuri sillä hetkellä, kun he sitä tarvitsevat. Tästä syystä perinteinen lineaarinen dokumentaatio, jossa käyttöohjeet kirjoitetaan kokonaisuutena alusta loppuun sivu-sivulta-periaatteella on alkanut väistyä uusien metodien tieltä, jotka painottavat modulaarisuutta, joustavuutta ja tehokkuutta niin käyttäjien kuin informaatiota tuottavien teknisten kirjoittajienkin näkökulmasta. Yksi alan suosituimmista tähän tarkoitukseen sopivista metodeista on Darwin Information Typing Architecture eli DITA. Tämän pro gradu -tutkielman teoreettinen viitekehys rakentuu merkintäkielten (etenkin DITAn) ja teknisen viestinnän eri periaatteiden ja hyvien käytäntöjen ympärille, joihin sisältyvät modulaarisuus, yksilähteistäminen ja minimalismi. Tutkimuskysymys on hyvinkin käytännöllinen, nimittäin tässä tutkielmassa tarkastellaan DITA XML:llä tuotettua dokumentaatiota sen lähtöformaatissa. Tutkielma on tehty yhteistyössä erään suuren yrityksen kompleksisia tuotteita valmistavan liiketoimintayksikön kanssa, jossa olen ollut harjoittelussa teknisenä kirjoittajana. Yksikössä tuotetaan itse tuotteiden lisäksi myös niiden dokumentaatio, ja DITA on tämän dokumentointistrategian ytimessä. Yksikössä on käynnistetty transformaatioprojekti, jonka tarkoituksena on kehittää asiakasdokumentaatiota entisestään. Tämä tutkielma on osa tuota projektia. Tutkimuskysymystä lähestyttiin toteuttamalla heuristinen arviointi dokumentaatiolle. Tutkielmassa esitellyt ja käytetyt DITA-heuristiikat luotiin osana tutkimusta, sillä vastaavia heuristiikkoja ei ollut luotu aiemmin. Heuristiikat pohjautuvat teoreettiseen ja käytännön tuntemukseen dokumentoinnista DITAa käyttäen, minkä lisäksi niiden taustalla vaikuttavat yksikön sisäiset ohjeistukset ja käytänteet sekä keskustelut ja yhteistyö yksikön dokumentaatioasiantuntijan kanssa, jolla on kattava kokemus ja tietämys tutkielmaan liittyvistä aihepiireistä. Tutkimusaineisto kattaa 80 DITA-topiikkia eli yksittäistä moduulia neljästä eri ohjelmistotuotekomponentista. Topiikeista 40 käsittelee konseptuaalista informaatiota komponenteista, kun taas toiset 40 kuvailevat tehtäviä, joita komponenttien käyttäjät noudattavat. Aineisto on peräisin vuodelta 2021. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että DITAa voidaan soveltaa monilla eri tavoilla dokumentaatiossa, mutta tietyt tavat toteuttavat DITAn arkkitehtuuria muita paremmin. Lisäksi tapojen välillä havaittiin olevan eroja sen suhteen, miten hyvin ne vastaavat rakenteisen ja modulaarisen tekstin kirjoittamisen konventioita. Olennaisimmat havainnot liittyvät semanttisen merkintäkielen käyttöön, minimalismiin ja informaatiotyypittelyyn sekä käyttäjän ydintehtävien korostamiseen tuoteominaisuuksiin keskittymisen sijaan. Tutkimuksen johtopäätökset tarjoavat käyttökelpoista tietoa yksikön transformaatioprojektin tarpeisiin, ja niitä tullaankin käyttämään osana asiakasdokumentaation kehittämistä. Tutkimuksen perusteella jatkotutkimuksen aiheena voisi olla esimerkiksi DITAa käyttävien teknisten kirjoittajien suhtautuminen tässä tutkielmassa käsiteltyihin rakenteellisen kirjoittamisen ja modulaarisuuden teemoihin. Näin olisi mahdollista saada ajankohtaista tietoa siitä, miten alan ammattilaiset näkevät DITAn ja sen käyttökelpoisuuden

Xml Beyond The Tags

XML is quickly being utilized in the field of technical communication to transfer information from database to person and company to company. Often communicators will structure information without a second thought of how or why certain tags are used to mark up the information. Because the company or a manual says to use those tags, the communicator does so. However, if professionals want to unlock the true potential of XML for better sharing of information across platforms, they need to understand the effects the technology using XML as well as political and cultural factors have on the tags being used. This thesis reviewed literature from multiple fields utilizing XML to find how tag choices can be influenced. XML allows for the sharing of information across multiple platforms and databases. Because of this efficiency, XML is utilized by many technologies. Often communicators must tag information so that the technologies can find the marked up information; therefore, technologies like single sourcing, data mining, and knowledge management influence the types of tags created. Additionally, cultural and political influences are analyzed to see how they play a role in determining what tags are used and created for specific documents. The thesis concludes with predictions on the future of XML and the technological, political, and cultural influences associated with XML tag sets based on information found within the thesis

ECLAP 2012 Conference on Information Technologies for Performing Arts, Media Access and Entertainment

It has been a long history of Information Technology innovations within the Cultural Heritage areas. The Performing arts has also been enforced with a number of new innovations which unveil a range of synergies and possibilities. Most of the technologies and innovations produced for digital libraries, media entertainment and education can be exploited in the field of performing arts, with adaptation and repurposing. Performing arts offer many interesting challenges and opportunities for research and innovations and exploitation of cutting edge research results from interdisciplinary areas. For these reasons, the ECLAP 2012 can be regarded as a continuation of past conferences such as AXMEDIS and WEDELMUSIC (both pressed by IEEE and FUP). ECLAP is an European Commission project to create a social network and media access service for performing arts institutions in Europe, to create the e-library of performing arts, exploiting innovative solutions coming from the ICT

Instructions on Small Screens : Analysing the Multimodality of Technical Communication Through a Design Experiment

Tässä tutkielmassa analysoin teknisen viestinnän multimodaalisuutta kokeellisen suunnittelun avulla. Kokeessani suunnittelen ja konvertoin älylasien pienelle näytölle kolme lyhyttä KONE Oyj:n asennus- ja huolto-ohjetta. Vaikka käytän kokeessani älylaseja, tutkimuksen näyttö voisi periaatteessa olla mikä tahansa pieni näyttö, esimerkiksi älypuhelin tai älykello, jonka ajantasainen sisältö on teoriassa helpommin kuljetettavissa mukana kuin paperille tulostettu perinteinen PDF-ohje. Konvertoin ohjeet käyttäen kahta teoriaa: visuaaliset ohjeet (Gattullo et al. 2019) ja minimalismiheuristiikka (van der Meij ja Carroll, 1998). Ymmärtääkseni paremmin ohjeiden koko käyttökontekstia, rakennan konversioiden testaamiseen yhteistyönä KONE Oyj:ssä käyttäjätestiympäristön simuloimaan ammattimaista hissin asennus- ja huoltoympäristöä. Vaikka nykytekniikka mahdollistaa digitaalisten, pienten näyttöjen käytön, ohjeiden tarkoitus ei muutu: niiden pitää ymmärrettävästi auttaa lukijaa suorittamaan tehtävänsä. Täten konversio- ja suunnitteluteorioiden vastapainoksi multimodaalisuuden teoriat (esimerkiksi, Bateman, Wildfeuer ja Hiippala, 2017) auttavat analysoimaan konversioiden ymmärrettävyyden eroja systemaattisesti. Käytän tutkielmassani multimodaalisuuden teorioita ymmärtääkseni konversioiden vaikutukset ohjeiden ymmärrettävyyteen. Multimodaalisuuden teorioiden avulla tunnistan ohjeiden käyttötilanteen, käytetyn median (älylasit) ominaisuudet, sekä rajaan varsinaiseksi tutkimuskohteekseni konvertoiduilta ohjenäytöiltä tunnistamani semioottiset moodit ja niiden vaikutukset konvertoitujen ohjeiden ymmärtämiseen. Johtopäätöksinä esitän, ettei yksittäisiä konvertoituja ohjenäyttöjä tutkimalla synny mimimalismiheuristiikan osalta ymmärrettävyyden kannalta merkittäviä eroja lähtötilanteen PDF-ohjeeseen nähden, lukuun ottamatta muutamien helposti pääteltävien kohtien poisjättämistä. Yleisesti ottaen molemmissa konversioissa älylaseille siirtyy multimodaalisesti samankaltainen, kaksiulotteista sivunäkymää hyödyntävä ohje kuin lähtötilanteen PDF. Koska toinen tutkimani teoria, visuaaliset ohjeet, perustuvat verbien korvaamiseen symboleilla, symbolien ymmärrettävyys korostuu merkittävänä erona visuaalisten ohjeiden käytettävyydessä. Johtopäätöksiä selventää, etten hyödynnä älylasien kaikkia ilmaisukeinoja, kuten liikkuvaa kuvaa ja ääntä, koska kokeessani huomioin kustannustehokkaan, teollisten ohjeiden tuotantoprosessin. Lopuksi ehdotan erityisesti teknisen viestinnän viitekehyksessä jatkotutkimuksen aiheiksi uusien digitaalisten medioiden kaikkien ominaisuuksien ja niiden multimodaalisten käyttötilanteiden tutkimista ja hyödyntämistä, pienien näyttöjen sisällöntuotannon standardisoinnin tutkimista ja kehitystä, sekä symbolien ymmärrettävyyden tutkimista

A systematic comparison of roundtrip software engineering approaches

Model-based software engineering contemplates several software development approaches in which models play an important role. One such approach is round-trip engineering. Very briefly, round-trip engineering is code generation from models, and models are updated whenever a code change occurs. The objective of this dissertation is to benchmark the comparative analysis of the round-trip engineering capability of the UML, Papyrus, Modelio and Visual Paradigm modeling tools. In more detailed terms, the work will focus on evaluating tools to automatically or semi-automatically support round-trip engineering processes for each selected diagram. Collaterally, this dissertation will allow us to gain insight into the current round-trip engineering landscape, establishing the state-of-the-art UML modeling tool support for this approach. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the round-trip engineering capabilities of the tools show that the Papyrus, Modeling and Visual Paradigm tools yielded satisfactory results by applying the Reverse and Forward Engineering scenarios without changing the models and codes but applying the Round-trip engineering scenario with changes in model and code presented results with some gaps in model and code coherence. It was concluded that they arose because the semantic definition of the models was done informally. The conclusions drawn throughout the dissertation will answer the questions: How effective are current code generation tools for documenting application evolution? Where will it support the decision made? objectives and will support the recommendations of the best tools that address the round-trip engineering method.A engenharia de software baseada em modelo contempla várias abordagens de desenvolvimento de software nas quais os modelos desempenham um papel importante. Uma dessas abordagens é a Round-trip engineering. Muito brevemente, a Round-trip engineering é a geração de código a partir de modelos, e os modelos são atualizado sempre que ocorre uma alteração no código. O objetivo desta dissertação é a realização de um benchmarking da análise comparativa da capacidade de Round-trip engineering das ferramentas de modelação UML, Papyrus, Modelio e Visual Paradigm. Em termos mais detalhados, o trabalho se concentrará na avaliação de ferramentas para dar suporte automático ou semiautomático a processos de Round-trip engineering (engenharia direta e engenharia reversa) para cada diagrama selecionado. Colateralmente, esta dissertação permitirá alcançar uma visão do panorama atual da Round-trip engineering, estabelecendo o estado da arte do suporte de ferramentas de modelação em UML à dita abordagem. A analise qualitativa e quantitativamente da capacidade de Round-trip engineering das ferramentas mostro que, as ferramentas Papiro, Modelagem e Paradigma Visual apresentaram resultados satisfatórios aplicando os cenários de Reverse e Forward Engineering sem alterar os modelos e códigos e com alterações, mas aplicando o cenário Round-trip engineering com alterações nos modelo e código apresentaram resultados com algumas lacunas nomeadamente na coerência dos modelos e código. Concluiu-se que as mesmas surgiram por causa da definição semântica dos modelos ser feita de forma informal. As conclusões tiradas ao longo do trabalho respondera as perguntas: Qual a eficácia das ferramentas atuais de geração de código para documentar a evolução dos aplicativos? Onde apoiará a decisão tomada? que foram definidas nos objetivos e apoiarão as recomendações das melhores ferramentas que aborda o método Round-trip engineering

Data catalog series for space science and applications flight missions. Volume 4B: Descriptions of data sets from meteorological and terrestrial applications spacecraft and investigations

The main purpose of the data catalog series is to provide descriptive references to data generated by space science flight missions. The data sets described include all of the actual holdings of the Space Science Data Center (NSSDC), all data sets for which direct contact information is available, and some data collections held and serviced by foreign investigators, NASA and other U.S. government agencies. This volume contains narrative descriptions of data sets from meteorological and terrestrial applications spacecraft and investigations. The following spacecraft series are included: Mariner, Pioneer, Pioneer Venus, Venera, Viking, Voyager, and Helios. Separate indexes to the planetary and interplanetary missions are also provided

The Benefits of Extended Reality for Technical Communication : Utilizing XR for Maintenance Documentation Creation and Delivery

The main goal of this dissertation is to explore the benefits of extended reality for technical communication. Both of these fields offer opportunities and also pose challenges to each other, and this dissertation provides insight into this relationship. The research was initiated by the author’s personal interest in both fields and also human-technology interaction and user needs in general. Even though this is an academic dissertation, it is first and foremost a practitioner’s view of these evolving technologies and their potential uses in industry and, specifically, in industrial maintenance and technical communication. Under the umbrella of extended reality and technical communication, this dissertation focuses on two main themes. The first part studies virtual reality as a technology to facilitate collaboration and digital content creation for technical documentation in industrial companies, and the second part explores the possibilities of augmented reality and smart glasses as a delivery channel for maintenance instructions. The developed concepts were tested by domain experts in user tests. The overall results of testing were positive, and domain experts expressed enthusiasm toward the concepts and technologies in general. The technical documentation process is an inherently collaborative process involving stakeholders from different teams and organizations, and virtual reality was evaluated to have a positive effect on that process, especially in the case of globally scattered teams. The developed tools were also rated positively for digital content creation. Therefore, virtual reality offers many benefits for technical documentation creation, an area where it has not been utilized until now. On the augmented reality side, domain experts were generally enthusiastic about the use of smart glasses even though the technologies are not yet mature enough for field use in industrial maintenance. Furthermore, the results show that content created in the technical communications industry standard, DITA XML, works well when delivered to smart glasses, and the same content can be single sourced to other delivery channels. The use of DITA XML, therefore, eliminates the need to tailor content for each delivery channel separately, and offers an effective way to create and update content for AR applications in industrial companies. This, in turn, can advance the use of AR technologies and related devices in field operations in industrial companies. In conclusion, the findings of this dissertation show that the fields of technical communication and extended reality have a significant amount of synergy. In this dissertation I establish use cases and guidelines for these areas