Special Edition Using SGML:The Basic Procedure

Combining Your Expertise with Their Expertise

Let’s face it. You each have your areas of expertise. Consultants know SGML and you know your installation’s goals and requirements. So how can you best combine your respective talents without stumbling over your respective weaknesses?

One approach is for each of you to remember what you need as well as what you can give. Focus on the process of exchange. To optimize your time together with consultants, be aware of what expertise you each bring and don’t bring to your discussions, as shown in the following table.

Consultant’s Expertise	Your Expertise
SGML design and syntax	Knowledge of purpose of project
Experience with similar projects and the time required for implementation systems	Knowledge of internal document handling procedures and processing
Knowledge of existing SGML compatible processing systems and their cost	Knowledge of current network infrastructure
Knowledge of what issues are relevant to overall SGML design	Knowledge of your customer’s needs from documents

Tip:
If you use a local area network, invite your systems administration personnel to meet your consultants. They’ll need to communicate during the project. Also, ask your consultants how easy it will be to make changes to your structure in the future. That will determine whether they incorporate changes now or add features later.
For example, if you want to add multimedia extensions to your documents, ask them how easy it is to add later versus now, when you don’t really have an application for it yet. It might be easier for them to set it up now for you to use later.

From Here…

This chapter has provided an overview of the basic procedure for becoming an SGML publisher. The design and production tasks described here are common to nearly every SGML publishing enterprise in existence. The cross references provided above will also direct you to the details on how to conduct each of the tasks associated with the basic SGML procedure.

For more information, refer to the following:

• Part II, “Document Analysis,” covers document analysis.

• Part III, “Content Modeling: Developing the DTD,” deals entirely with content modeling and DTD development.

• Chapter 24, “Understanding and Using Output Specifications,” discusses specification design and practicalities.

• Part IV, “Markup Strategies,” covers document markup and tagging.

• If you’re considering SGML as an upgrade to HTML, look at Part V, “SGML and the World Wide Web.”

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