Many traditional content, document, or knowledge management and product information systems are not built to support documentation for products with large numbers of variations in configuration. This leads to higher support costs, workflow, and logistical problems updating documentation throughout the product lifecycle. The answer is to break content into smaller, reusable components that can be reassembled based on configuration choices.
Component content can be used in various ways, either feeding downstream systems, for example, websites, customer support, configuring price quote, etc. It can also be fed by upstream systems such as product information and product content management systems, and customer support and self-service.
Many elements need to be aligned for component content to support complex configurations correctly. This begins with the correct taxonomies – a hierarchical, parent-child whole/part collection of terms representing products and concepts related to those products' support and service. Multiple taxonomies represent various elements of the knowledge and product domain.
It is not unusual to have ten or more hierarchies or facets, and the various dimensions of knowledge concepts and their relationships become the ontology. The ontology is the knowledge scaffolding for the organization. Content models, metadata structures, content profiles, components, and standards are designed using the ontology. Until this structure is in place, component content is not feasible.
With componentized content and robust information architecture, many future possibilities, such as serving content through a chat question answering bot, opens up. In the future, a maintenance engineer will be able to walk up to a machine and ask what maintenance procedures it needs or, with the right integrated diagnostics, what parts needed to be replaced.
In conclusion, customized documentation for complex products can be created economically by componentizing documentation and integrating it with well-architected information systems.
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