Glossary

Whether you’re just starting out in the field or are an experienced professional, our Glossary page will keep you up-to-date on the terminology and concepts in the world of technical documentation and content management.

CCMS (Component Content Management System)

A CCMS (Component Content Management System) is a special type of content management system that manages content in granular components rather than static documents or pages.

In a CCMS, content is broken down into small components where paragraphs, images, procedures, tables, and even individual words can be a component. These components are then assembled into larger documents.

A CCMS uses XML as the source (see also structured authoring) because the flexibility of that markup language allows for the rich semantic content and metadata required to make the components as granular and reusable as possible.

The componentizing of content makes a CCMS ideal for content reuse and single-sourcing, since each component only has to be written or created once, but can be used in many different contexts and documents. This ensures consistency, accuracy, and quality, and reduces cost significantly for producing and updating large volumes of content.

The CCMS will also typically be able to publish from that single source of content to many different outputs, such as print PDF, web, eLearning, support knowledge bases, apps, and many more. Because XML can easily be transformed into other formats, the list of output formats can also be extended if needed.

This means a CCMS is fundamentally different from what is usually intended when using the term “CMS” (which normally refers to a Web CMS, i.e something like WordPress, Drupal, etc), and the use case is usually also very different. Whereas a (web) CMS is mainly used to create unique pages for a marketing website, a CCMS is mainly used to single-source content and produce and publish large volumes of documentation.

Did we spark your curiosity? Take a moment to explore the differences between a CCMS and a CMS.

Key features of a CCMS

  • Content is managed in granular components
  • Centralized single source of truth
  • Easy content reuse
  • Personalization of content
  • Version control
  • Management of where content is used
  • Workflow management
  • Collaboration features
  • Separation of content and layout (reducing cost of formatting)
  • Traceability
  • XML-based source content (structured authoring)
  • Automatic link management
  • Translation management
  • Strong searchability through rich metadata
  • Multi-channel publishing

 

Content Reuse

Content reuse is the practice of using the same content in multiple places. For example, using the same topic in different user guides, the same warning message in several different topics. By reusing your content, you can save time and create more consistent technical publications.

The idea is that, as much as possible, you write each piece of content once, in one place. For example, you could write a topic and use that same topic in several different publications, such as technical specs, manuals, policies, procedures, etc.

You can also reuse parts of your content, such as paragraphs and images. So, if you have a paragraph that you want to use in several topics, you can reuse the same paragraph rather than create copies of it.

Common uses of content reuse include: paragraphs, text fragments, procedures, admonitions, and filtering, among others.

Content Strategy

Content Strategy is a very broad term. Content strategy is the approach and method of creating, managing, and delivering content to its intended audiences, which can make it a bit problematic in that it encompasses so many things and applies to many industries.

One use of the term that has become very prevalent in recent years is its use in marketing, where it could be read as shorthand for “content marketing strategy”. In that sense it relates to planning a strategy for how to produce content such as blog articles, webinars, podcasts, social media posts, and more, from a marketing perspective.

However, from a technical communication perspective, the term content strategy takes on a different meaning. It involves complex tasks such as conducting content inventories and audits, developing taxonomies, creating content models, and organizing content effectively to support documentation planning and information architecture.

An example of a primer on this meaning of the term content strategy would be Managing Enterprise Content – A Unified Content Strategy.

DITA

DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is an XML content model. XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language, which means there are many different “flavors” of XML, such as DocBook, S1000D, DITA, and more.

What defines DITA specifically as an XML content model is that it is based on categorizing topics into information types, meaning each document will be constrained to a limited subset of the content model. The main topic types are “task”, “concept”, and “reference”. The idea behind this is to make the authoring of content more consistent. For example, instructional content is always written using the task model so that certain elements follow others, like steps after prerequisites. It can, however, be argued that it is hard to define content so rigidly, and that such topic typing can be over-restrictive.

The model does allow for specialization of topic types, to create your own DITA topic types in order to reduce the limitations and extend it to fit your needs. However, specialization can introduce another level of complexity in creating that information architecture.

Topic typing can be done quite easily in other content models such as DocBook, but it would then typically be an option to enforce it rather than being built into the model. The DITA open standard is developed and maintained by the OASIS DITA Technical Committee.

DITA CCMS

A DITA CCMS refers to a Component Content Management System (CCMS) that uses DITA as the source content model for writing documents.

It’s usually important that a CCMS solution should be using an XML content model as the source for authoring documentation, and most CCMS platforms do. However, whether it is important which particular content model is used by the CCMS depends on the needs of the user.

It is rarely important if the need is primarily robust single-sourcing content reuse, in which case e.g both DITA and DocBook would serve equally well. If there is a need for particular very regulated rules to be followed, however, such as might be the case for military or naval applications, a content model like S1000D may be required.

DocBook

DocBook is an open standard XML content model for writing documentation. In its original development it was intended specifically for technical documentation for hardware and software, but its rich semantic model today makes it suitable for any type of documentation.

DocBook is equally well-suited for both topic-based authoring and for longer documents. What mainly defines DocBook compared to other XML-based content models such as DITA or S1000D is that it is more flexible in terms of the structure of elements. While it does govern the structure of documents to enforce consistent content, it takes a middle ground and is more pragmatic and less rigid. Topic typing can be enforced, but is an option in DocBook rather than built into the model as in DITA.

The XML content model used in the Paligo CCMS is based on DocBook.

The DocBook open standard is developed and maintained by the OASIS DocBook Technical Committee.

Documentation

Documentation is an umbrella term that may seem simple and, therefore, surprising that it would even need a definition. But it can be useful precisely because it is so broad.

Because it can mean so many things, the term documentation is used for anything that can be documented, of course. It can be financial data provided for various purposes, or clinical data documented for medical research purposes, and so on. But for anyone where a significant part of their work is documentation, it usually has a different meaning, and here are some definitions for such documentation:

  • To technical writers it usually means “technical documentation“, i.e product manuals, user guides, online help, etc.
  • To users working with documentation at an insurance company it might mean policies (insurance policies and all the policies governing that business)
  • To people at a bank or heavily regulated industry, it might mean standard operating procedures or compliance documentation.
  • To someone working in the life sciences it may refer to “labeling” (an umbrella term for all kinds of documentation, including not only what the layman would call labels, but also large publications called IFUs (Instructions for Use) and more.

Policies and Procedures

Policies and procedures are structured guidelines and guiding principles that define how an organization and its employees should operate. Policies define the what and why of company operations, and procedures outline the how and when.

A policy is a high-level statement that describes a company’s position on a subject or area of operation. It outlines what should be done but does not specify how.

A procedure is a step-by-step description of how to implement a policy. It describes how to perform a specific task or activity related to that policy.

  • Policy: “Data security is a top priority for our organization, ensuring our customer, company, and employee data is highly secure.”
  • Procedure: “The procedure for reporting a security incident involves contacting the IT help desk, completing an incident report form, and notifying the security officer.”

Single-sourcing

When we say “single-source”, we are actually talking about a single source of truth. Therefore, single-sourcing refers to the practice of creating content once and reuse it (content reuse) for multiple different contexts.

For example, the same piece of content in a CCMS, such as a topic about security or a boilerplate paragraph or a warning admonition, could be reused in many publications for different (but similar) product models being documented.

Another example is the reuse of images or text by referencing them rather than copying and pasting content into multiple topics. Using variable sets and filtering attributes also helps consolidate variations of information into one place.

Creating a single source of truth reduces the work of creating and updating content, which improves the consistency, accuracy, and quality of content over time.

Single sourcing is sometimes used as an umbrella term for both the reuse of content from one source for multiple contexts, as well as the use of it to publish the same content to multiple channels (multi-channel or omni-channel publishing). However, this has been the cause of some debate, and others prefer talking about “multi-purposing content” when referring to multi-channel publishing.

SOP – Standard Operating Procedure

A standard operating procedure (SOP) is a formal, documented, and highly detailed set of instructions for performing a specific task or activity, typically within a department or function.

SOPs are a subset of procedures covering tasks within a single department. Each SOP trains employees to perform tasks the same way every time, ensuring consistency, safety, and compliance with regulations.

For example, a company can define an SOP that outlines how customer service representatives handle a customer complaint. The steps might include acknowledging the complaint, gathering information, escalating the issue if necessary, and providing follow-up. Every customer service representative would be trained to follow this SOP documentation.

Structured Authoring

Structured Authoring is an approach to writing content according to predefined rules that help create documents that are more consistent, accurate, and accessible. Structured authoring is governed by an XML-based content model that provides a rich set of elements to describe the content semantically.

Structured writing also makes it possible to separate content from layout (formatting), making it easier to focus on the content and have a CCMS that takes care of the format dynamically and automatically.

By providing a rich semantic machine-readable model of the content, structured authoring is the prerequisite for single-source content reuse.

Structured content

Structured content is content that follows a defined content model, usually based on XML, which specifies the elements and structure of a document. The structure is typically defined by a DTD or XML Schema that contains a rich set of semantic elements to describe the content.

Structured content is not defined by style or formatting, but rather by its meaning and purpose. For example, you would use a “procedure” element that includes “steps” to write instructions, and you would use dedicated elements like “warning” or “note” to write certain admonitions. Structured content also allows the author to use a wide range of metadata to further define it.

Structured XML-based content is also machine-readable, which makes it ideal for the use in CCMS solutions to allow for intelligent processing, content reuse and single-sourced multi-channel publishing.

Technical Documentation

Technical documentation (and technical writing as a practice to produce it) refer to the documentation required to communicate usable information to one or more audiences.

For example, when you buy a car, you will find a printed (and probably digital) user manual in the glove compartment. Or when you need to understand how to do something in Excel, you would probably refer to Microsoft’s (technical) documentation found online. Or when you ask a question on a support portal and several suggestions pop up to ask you if any of the articles solve your problem. These are all examples of technical documentation.

Technical documentation is everywhere in our day-to-day lives, but many people are unaware of the term used by the practitioners who create it, technical writers.

Technical Documentation Software

The term Technical Documentation Software is a very broad one, that could refer to a multitude of fundamentally different tools or solutions.

When used, it will clearly refer to a system that can be used to produce technical documentation (product manuals, online help, in-app help, knowledge bases, eLearning content for a product, and much more). But depending on the use case, this could mean anything from Microsoft Word to simple wikis to help authoring tools (HAT) like MadCap Flare or RoboHelp to hybrid wiki/HAT tools like Confluence or to full-fledged enterprise ready CCMS solutions like Paligo, Schema ST4, Tridion Docs, etc.

The use case for the simpler tools may be for quick and easy documentation of a single product for example, where other solutions may be overkill. When content reuse is important, HAT tools may do the job if the documentation is not too complex or the documentation team is not large.

For more complex documentation needs, larger or distributed teams, and for enterprise companies with strict requirements on structured authoring, content reuse, collaboration, review, approval, versioning, localization, and publishing workflows, a CCMS will usually be the solution of choice.

Topic-based Authoring

In topic-based authoring content is created not as long monolithic documents or “books”, but rather as small chunks of content usually focusing on a self-contained subject matter (topic). These topics are then used as building blocks (think Lego blocks) to build larger publications.

Topic-based authoring became popular with the appearance of online help content already in the 1990’s, and today it is a central feature of XML-based platforms such as the Paligo CCMS and DITA CCMS platforms. The idea was that a topic should be able to “stand alone”. That documentation often demanded quick answers to questions and should therefore focus on answering one question, describing one procedure, and so on.

Besides the focus on being able to read documentation as standalone pieces of content, topic-based authoring also has other benefits. By breaking content into smaller blocks of modular content, it makes it easier to reuse content for a multitude of different contexts (e.g product models or versions), audiences, markets, and more.

XLIFF

XLIFF (XML Localization Interchange File Format) is an XML-based format for easy interchange of content for localization/translation. This means it can be used by most translation tools on the market (Translation Management Systems like TRADOS, Phrase, Smartling, Crowdin, etc).

A CCMS, like Paligo, makes translation management easier by managing the content in the CCMS and exporting to the open standard XLIFF, which makes it less relevant which translation tool the user may be using.

XML Content Model

Think of an XML content model as a set of rules that govern how a document can be constructed. For example, if you want to write an instruction in the DocBook content model, you can use the “procedure” element which can contain any number of “steps” and “substeps”.

Most content models used for documentation contain a large number of such elements to describe all kinds of content semantically. Usually the rules and structure of the content model are implemented and determined by a DTD or XML Schema.