Chapter 13. Reuse strategy

A unified content strategy is dependent on the effectiveness of your reuse strategy, including both manual reuse and automatic reuse.

Content can be reused in many ways, and this chapter identifies the different methods and types of reuse. Note that support for the different types of reuse is dependent on the content management system (CMS).

Structural reuse vs. content reuse

Content reuse is the process of reusing specific pieces of content.

For example, the structural component known as the Value Proposition can be structurally reused in a variety of different information product models, but you’d reuse the content of the Value Proposition for Product X in the brochure for Product X, not in the brochure for Product Y.

Structural reuse is the process of reusing common structures across a variety of information products. Structural reuse is defined in your content models. Structural reuse facilitates content reuse.

Creating a reuse strategy

A reuse strategy defines:

• The way content will be reused (manual versus automated)

• The way you’ll secure reusable content

• The types of reuse: identical, section, component, conditional, fragment, or variable

• The level of granularity: how small your content should be chunked (refer to Chapter 12, “Content modeling: Adaptive content design”)

• The reuse governance strategy: business rules that apply to ownership, derivatives, and change of reusable content (refer to Chapter 17, “Change management and governance”)

Reuse methods

There are two methods for reuse: manual reuse and automated reuse. Each method of reuse offers six options:

• Identical reuse (reuse without change)

• Section-based reuse (reuse of a whole section or series of components)

• Component-based reuse (individual components)

• Conditional/filtered reuse (multiple versions of the content contained within the same component)

• Fragment-based reuse (reuse of a portion of a component)

• Variable reuse (small pieces of content with different values in different situations, for example, weights and measures)

Manual reuse

In manual reuse—the most common form of reuse—authors manually find a component, retrieve it, and reuse it. Manual reuse doesn’t rely on specific technology; although it can be done without a content management system, a CMS is advisable.

Any content can be used in a manual reuse situation. In some ways, manual reuse is a replacement for the “copy and paste” that many organizations use. However, manual reuse is not copy and paste; it’s simply a “pointer” to the source content. At the reuse location, a link is inserted that points to the reusable content (source). The reused content is visually displayed but it does not actually reside in the “document.”

Many organizations use manual reuse when they need to rapidly reconfigure their information products to meet new product or customer requirements. Translating reusable content creates new possibilities. One organization found that just as they could create new documents by assembling reusable English content, they could create new French documents by assembling the already translated French versions of the same reusable content.

Manual reuse provides authors with the greatest flexibility because it gives them the choice to reuse content and the choice to determine which reusable content is appropriate. However, manual reuse results in the lowest incidence of reuse because it puts the burden on authors to want to reuse content, to know that potential reusable content exists, and to find the content they want to reuse. If authors lack motivation, if they’re not aware that a suitable reusable component exists or might exist, or if they have trouble finding the appropriate component, reuse may not occur.

To make manual reuse more effective, organizations can optimize retrievability, provide guidelines, and ensure that authors are well trained.

Retrievability can be optimized through the use of content management systems, effective categorization of content, and rich metadata (refer to Chapter 15, “Designing metadata”).

Guidelines provide authors with clear information on the models to be used (refer to Chapter 16, “It’s all about the content”). Information product models help authors identify where content should be reused (refer to Chapter 12, “Content modeling: Adaptive content design”). Training ensures that authors know how to use the models and the content management system, and that they follow guidelines for reuse.

Automated reuse

In automated reuse the system decides how to reuse content based on information product models, metadata, and business rules.

Once specific content has been identified as reusable in a specific location, the reusable content is automatically inserted (autopopulated) into the appropriate locations. The author doesn’t have to determine if the reusable content exists or search for and retrieve it. Automated reuse ensures that content is reused and reduces the burden on the author to know that reusable content exists, to find the reusable content, and to insert it appropriately.

The CMS uses your information product models to identify where content can be reused. If a component exists and matches the author’s specific content requirements, the reusable components are automatically inserted into appropriate spots in the “document” (that is, the document is prepopulated with content).

For example, in the case of the Value Proposition, the information product models identify that it should be included in the product overview, elevator pitch, brochure, and sales training. Figure 13.1 repeats the information product model for your reference.

Figure 13.1. Reuse across information products.

The marketing author who is responsible for the value proposition completes the Value Proposition component and checks it into the CMS.

Based on the information product model, the system knows what the reusable content components are and checks to see if they are complete. If they are complete, the system automatically populates the product overview, elevator pitch, brochure, and sales training with the reusable content components.

A second marketing author, who is tasked with writing the brochure, opens the brochure template and sees that the reusable content components are complete and in place. The author then completes the content that is unique to this brochure. The other information products are completed by different marketing authors.

Automated reuse is the most costly system to implement because it requires very detailed models, metadata, and business rules. On the other hand, automated reuse provides the greatest return on investment, achieved through guaranteed reuse (guaranteed because reuse isn’t dependent on author motivation and knowledge of existing content).

Automated reuse can be perceived as overly restrictive by authors (for example, it doesn’t provide flexibility and opportunities to be creative). This perception can be reduced by allowing authors to modify reusable content where appropriate (derivative reuse) and to choose not to use reusable components when they’re not appropriate in a particular instance. But make sure that increased flexibility doesn’t diminish the effectiveness of automated reuse. For automated reuse to work effectively, authors can’t be allowed to remove required content or to edit that content.

Use automated reuse when your content is very structured and you can explicitly identify where content is to be reused, and where you want to ensure that specific content is reused.

Securing reusable content

You can secure your content to ensure that it can’t be changed by anyone other than the owner (locked reuse), or you can make it editable (derivative reuse) so that authors can make necessary changes while still reusing most of the component.

Locked reuse

Locked reuse is reuse where the content cannot be changed; only the owner may change the source content of a locked component.

Examples of commonly used “locked reuse” content are legal information, cautionary information, standard statements of disclaimer, and branding information. Any content that you don’t want changed by others can be locked. However, don’t lock all content because you may limit its effectiveness. We find that companies typically lock only 10 to 15 percent of their content.

Use locked reuse when you want to ensure content isn’t changed when reused.

Derivative reuse

Derivative reuse is reuse with change. Derivative reuse is very valuable in an effective reuse strategy. Not all content can be reused identically, so if it can be reused derivatively, it’s still possible to track the reuse to ensure that content stays as consistent as possible. However, authors need to receive training to persuade them to employ derivative reuse only when absolutely necessary. Your content repository can become very unmanageable with excessive derivative reuse.

The derivative component is a “child” of the “parent” (source) component. When the source component changes, the owner of the derivative is notified so the author of the derivative component can review the changes to the source component and determine if any changes need to be made to the derivative. This ensures that content remains as similar as possible.

The relationship between derivative content and its original source content is useful when content changes, because it ensures that the source and related content stay synchronized. Care should be taken, though, when deciding to create a derivative version of content. The more derivatives you create, the more variations of the content will exist, and the more work it will take to manage it. Use it, just don’t abuse it.

Marketing materials are a good example of an area where derivative content makes a lot of sense. You may have the same product and the same message but you’re reaching out to a different audience, possibly with a different offering. Consider creating a common message, then creating a series of derivative components for each of the audience variations. This way, when the message changes, all the authors of derivative versions are notified, which means that your message remains consistent across the derivative content.

Types of reuse

Earlier we listed six types of reuse. Below is a more detailed look at them.

Identical

Identical reuse involves content that’s reused without change.

Section

Section-based reuse enables you to reuse an entire section or grouping of components at once.

Section-based reuse is very useful when you’re building new information products from existing content. For example, if you customize courses for customers, you can reuse entire sections from your standard materials, then add and augment as required to meet the customer’s specific needs.

You can reuse an entire section or grouping of components. Your definition of the “section” grouping will depend on your content and business requirements.

Component

Component-based reuse enables you to reuse components of content. A component is a discrete piece of content that is about a specific subject, has an identifiable purpose, and can stand alone.

Components can be reused multiple times in multiple information products.

Conditional

In conditional reuse, authors provide variants for content in a single component, with the variations identified by conditional tags or metadata. When the component is “published,” the different variations are published as required. Conditional reuse is often called “filtered” reuse because the content that isn’t required (for example, for the audience, device, and channel) is filtered out when the content is published. Conditional reuse is very valuable in multichannel publishing, audience variants, product variants, regional variants, and so on. It’s an intuitive way for authors to keep all variations together for ease of writing and review. For example, some content could include a traditional table and an image of the table. The traditional table could be tagged with “print” and the table image “eBook.” When the content is published to an eBook, the traditional table would be filtered out.

Conditional reuse has a core set of content that’s applicable in all uses, and variant content that builds on the core content and is only applicable in certain situations. To create content for conditional reuse:

• Identify the core content (the content that’s identical for all uses).

• Identify unique content to meet other needs.

• Make sure that when the content is filtered (for example, the unrelated content is filtered out), the content still flows (is readable and understandable).

• Tag the elements, indicating where they’re valid.

Use of the building block approach allows authors to create all the content for a reusable component at the same time; in this way, all reusable content for a component resides together and can be reused in its entirety. This makes it easier for reviewers as well because they only need to review the single component, not bits of information all over the place.

Fragment

In fragment-based reuse a piece of a component such as a paragraph or a bullet is reused.

While any element in any component can be pointed to and identified for reuse, it makes a lot of sense to group together content fragments for reuse. For example, if an author wants to reuse a term, the author could point to it in the component that includes it, but the next author who wants to reuse that term would have a very difficult time knowing where that term is located. It makes more sense to group together commonly reused content fragments into a single component for ease of search and retrieval.

However, you can also decide to reuse something such as a step, a bullet, or any other piece of information. If others are likely to want to reuse the content, it makes more sense to group it together in a “warehouse” component. The warehouse component holds fragments of content for ease of retrieval but the warehouse component is never reused as a whole component. When you reuse a fragment in a one-off situation, you can simply point to the element and reuse it.

Variable

Variable reuse enables you to set up a variable that can have a different value in different situations.

Variable reuse is useful when there are only slight variations in content (such as product names in different regions), but otherwise the rest of the content is identical.

Supporting adaptive design through reuse

All your content could be published to each of the desired channels, but does it make sense to do so? You need to revisit your models and decide what bits of information make sense in which situations so you can determine what content should be reused for each channel.

In Chapter 12, “Content modeling: Adaptive content design,” we identified that you needed to understand the constraints of various devices in order to be able to design appropriate models. When you identify reuse, you determine how the channel impacts the type of content as well as the level of content to be delivered.

For example, a smartphone is often used to:

• Look up or find information. This is often related to the current location of the owner, or simply a reminder of something.

• Read or explore. This typically happens when the owner has some time to kill, perhaps standing in a lineup or waiting for someone, and accesses an app, an eBook, or a website.

• Check what’s happening. What’s happening on Twitter, Facebook, around the world?

Whatever people do on the smartphone, it tends to be sporadic, short, and frequent. So you need to determine what bits of your information make sense to deliver in the mobile device.

For adaptive content it’s a lot easier to determine the reuse for a channel based on the component type or the elements within the component, rather than meticulously identifying each and every piece of information to be reused.

When doesn’t reuse make sense?

While every effort should be made to reuse as much content as possible, sometimes reuse doesn’t make sense. Not every piece of content is reusable, nor should content be reused when it’s inappropriate in a given context.

Sentence fragments and individual words may not be appropriate for reuse. If the difference is at the sentence level, consider using conditions to identify the variant sentence. The smaller you break down your content components for reuse, the more complex it is to reuse and manage the content. If individual words are the only component of information that changes, consider using variables that can have a different value depending on the instance. This keeps the component the same, but allows for variation.

You may find that content needs to change to address a different audience. Sometimes the tone or style of the writing is different and the specifics are different, but the message is the same.

To ensure that a component is reusable in many instances, you may contemplate writing very generic components. The generic reusable component may serve the reuse requirement, but may compromise the usability and comprehensibility of the content. Never compromise the quality of the content in order to reuse it. Consider not reusing the content, or use derivative reuse so the content can be adapted to meet the needs of the specific reuse instance.

As you perform your analysis and build your models, consider the value of the reuse. Reuse content where appropriate and effective, and always make sure that the reuse won’t compromise the quality and usability of your materials or make the reusable content difficult to create, find, or manage.

Summary

A reuse strategy defines the following:

• The way content will be reused (manual versus automated)

• The types of reuse (identical, section, component, conditional, fragment, or variable)

• The way you’ll secure reusable content

• The level of granularity (how small your content should be chunked)

• The reuse governance strategy (business rules that apply to ownership, derivatives, and change of reusable content)

There are two methods for reuse: manual reuse and automated reuse. In manual reuse authors manually find a component, retrieve it, and reuse it. In automated reuse the system decides how to reuse content based on information product models, metadata, and business rules.

You can secure your content to ensure that it can’t be changed by anyone other than the owner (locked reuse), or you can make it editable (derivative reuse). Locked reuse is reuse where the content cannot be changed; only the owner may change the content of a locked component. Derivative reuse occurs when a reusable element is modified.

There are a number of different types of reuse:

• Identical reuse is content that’s reused without change. The content could be locked or editable, but the author has chosen to use the component unchanged.

• Section-based reuse enables you to reuse an entire section or grouping of components at once.

• Component-based reuse enables you to reuse a component of information.

• In conditional reuse authors provide variants for content in a single component.

• In fragment-based reuse a piece of a component such as a paragraph or a bullet is reused.

• In variable-based reuse small pieces of content with different values in different situations are reused.

While every effort should be made to reuse as much content as possible, not every piece of content is reusable, and sometimes reuse is inappropriate.