So, you’ve analyzed your content and figured out how it’s being used and how it could be reused, you’ve mapped out a new content life cycle, built information models, designed workflow processes, and selected tools that will support your unified content strategy. However, moving to a unified content strategy takes more than just good design, new processes, and nifty tools! Moving to a unified content strategy also means that you change the way you work. The chapters in Part V discuss some of the organizational issues you’ll need to address when implementing a unified content strategy, starting with how groups within your company will need to work together.

In Chapter 1, “Content: The lifeblood of an organization,” we introduced you to the concept of the Content Silo Trap, which is caused by authors working in isolation from other authors within the organization. Walls are erected among content areas and even within content areas, which leads to content being created, and recreated, and recreated, often with changes or differences at each iteration. Chapter 19, “Collaborative authoring: Breaking down the silos,” suggests strategies for authors working together to create unified content. Collaborative authoring goes beyond having tools that support sharing of information. Collaboration is a human endeavor and requires everyone working together towards a common goal. Chapter 19 describes the human efforts that collaborative authoring requires.

Another significant organizational change is in the way authors create content. A unified content strategy requires that content remains separate from format, so that the same content can be used in different media. Separating content from format means implementing structured writing, in which a structure based on principles of clear communication, information analysis, and cognitive psychology is defined for every element that makes up an information product. Chapter 20, “Separating content from format,” describes how and why you should write structured content, including how to write to an information model and how to structure content for different uses by following a building block approach. We also show you examples of how the same content is used in different outputs, as specified by the information models.

Chapter 21, “Managing change,” moves from authoring issues to change management ones. Implementing a unified content strategy means big changes, including some new and some modified roles. Even if you adopt a unified content strategy in only one area of your organization, you are still likely to encounter some resistance. Chapter 21 describes some of the issues and offers some suggestions for overcoming resistance. We also provide descriptions of the new and modified roles you will require.

Finally, Chapter 22, “Transition plan” addresses the many issues often involved in moving towards new processes and technology including scoping out your project, working with a restricted budget, implementing your project in phases, and implementing structure without structured authoring tools.