DITA migration of GE Healthcare Bio-Sciences documentation

Citec provided the customer with solid DITA-based documentation allowing for more uniform quality and higher level of reuse.

Project description

The overall goal of the DITA implementation project was to export the existing FlexDTD-based source material from the Skribenta content management system (CMS), convert the source material into DITA format, and then migrate the converted DITA-based material into the new Astoria component content management system (CCMS).

The customer had decided on a group level to move into DITA-based documentation, and the Life Sciences unit located in Uppsala needed specific expertise to carry out the transition into DITA.

Citec's scope

After an analysis phase, Citec came to the conclusion that the migration into DITA and Astoria was possible, but the process would not be straightforward. The loosely defined FlexDTD allowed the use of various uncommon documentation structures, and thus Citec needed to create a highly sophisticated conversion script and well-defined process descriptions to enable the conversion into the DITA standard. A key factor in the success of the migration project was the excellent cooperation between the GEHC LS TechDoc team and Citec.

As a result of the migration project and the accompanying trainings and instructions, the customer can now create, manage, and assemble complex, dynamic, globalized documentation across multiple divisions within the company.

Analysis phase

  • 20 publications were analysed.
  • Publications selected to be representative of the whole documentation set.

Pilot conversion

  • 13 Skribenta documents were converted into DITA.
  • Based on this pilot, the conversion script was fine tuned.

Full conversion

A total of 250 Skribenta publications, with an average of 150 pages and 80 modules per publication, were converted into DITA and imported into Astoria.

Trainings and instructions

Citec provided trainings on the following subjects:

  • DITA & XML basics
  • DITA Open Toolkit
  • FlexDTD to DITA conversion tool
  • Astoria basics & use cases

Citec created the following instructions and process descriptions jointly with the LS TechDoc team:

  • Exporting content from Skribenta
  • Migrating content into Astoria
  • Publishing content via Astoria
  • Reviewing content in Astoria
Case in brief
Customer: GE Healthcare Bio-Sciences AB
Project location: Sweden
Year completed: 2017
Technical data:

A total of 250 Skribenta publications, with an average of 150 pages and 80 modules per publication, were converted into DITA and imported into Astoria.