Month: April 2005

EContent open source CMS article

Open Source CMS Article in EContent Magazine.

There is a good article on open source content management systems in the latest (January/February) issue of EContent Magazine. Here are some key points: Frank Gilbane, of the Gilbane Report, is quoted: “If you have a spectrum where you build a CMS yourself on one end and commercial solutions at the other end, open source can sit in the middle.” I like this way of describing the role of open

By noemail@noemail.org (Seth). [Enter Content Here]

Corporate blogs and wikis

Corporate Use of Blogs and Wikis.

Lauren Wood, of The Gilbane Report has an excellent introductory article on the corporate use of Blogs and Wikis (factoid: did you know that “Wiki” is a Hawaiian word for “hurry” or “quick”?). The article gives real world examples of companies using blogs and Wiki’s for internal and external communication purposes. I agree with Lauren that these tools have great potential in the enterprise.

By noemail@noemail.org (Seth). [Enter Content Here]

Documentum desert island skills

My post on general ECM skills reminded me of an internal post on Documentum consulting skills. I thought I’d cross post it here in case anyone found it helpful. I’ve made minor edits to expand acronyms, clarify product names, or clear up other ambiguities but the post is pretty much intact.
 
What makes a great Documentum consultant?
 
So, what makes a great Documentum consultant? I think there are desert island skills that every one must have or that you’d really want to have if you were alone on a desert island facing some sort of Documentum project. There are also fringe skills that add value and could be critical depending on the project.
 
A consistent “why do you like working with DCTM” answer from the people we’ve interviewed is that people get to work with a wide variety of technologies. Looking at this list shows why. There aren’t many people that can fit this bill. It’s also important to note that someone broad enough to score well against these categories could actually be a great fit for non-Documentum projects.
 
Desert Island Documentum Skills (In no particular order)
  • Core consulting skills (project management, written & verbal communication, client management, selling, teamwork, confidence)
  • People-centric application experience (Collaboration, process, workflow)
  • Document-centric application experience
  • Documentum fundamentals: Workflow, Security, Object Model, Documentum Foundation Classes (DFC)
  • Basic Documentum administrative tasks (repository care-and-feeding, best practices, installing content server, creating a repository) 
  • Documentum Query Language, Basic SQL
  • Basic XML/XSLT
  • Basic operating system (starting/stopping processes, navigating the Documentum installation folder hierarchy, running programs/scripts, editing files, changing permissions/owners of files, setting environment variables, using XServer (for UNIX), administering users and groups)
  • Basic Relational Database (relational concepts, minimal SQL, ability to speak somewhat intelligently with a DBA)
  • Basic Java (knows what a classpath is, can write and compile a class, can leverage Javadocs)
  • Basic BASIC
  • Basic Web Development Kit (WDK)
  • Basic application server
  • HTML, JavaScript, CSS
  • Ability to negotiate IT processes and human resources
  • Troubleshooting and debugging
Fringe/Value-add Documentum Skills (In no particular order)
  • Intermediate to Advanced WDK, Business Objects Framework (BOF)
  • Java Server Faces, Struts, other frameworks
  • JSP, servlets, JDBC, EJB
  • Web services
  • All other Documentum products such as Web Publisher, InputAccel, Content Rendition Services, WebCache, Site Delivery Services, Content Intelligence Services, Digital Asset Manager/Rich Media Services, Business Process, Reporting Gateway, JDBC Services, Manager/FormsBuilder
  • Documentum federations, replication
  • High availability/high performance, load testing
  • Enterprise architecture
  • Identity management (Netegrity, Oblix)
  • Portals in general, Documentum WDK for Portals
  • Imaging, COLD, fixed asset management
  • Structured authoring tools (Epic, Framemaker, XMetal)
  • Web Services
  • Advanced XSLT, FOSI, SGML, Schema/DTD
  • Apache FOP
  • Enterprise Integration
  • Industry-specific or horizontal solutions (Collaboration/eRoom, Records Management, SarbOx, Aerospace, Pharma, Oil&Gas, Manufacturing)

So, a “great” Documentum consultant would have all of the “Desert Island Documentum Skills” nailed as well as the “Fringe/Value-Add Documentum Skills” applicable to the project at-hand.

Thoughts on skills for ECM professionals

Ann Rockley recently posed a question to the CMPros listserv about the skills needed for a successful Enterprise Content Management professional. Here’s my reply:

To really drill down on this topic, you have to be specific about what the ECM professional is trying to do. As we’ve discussed ad nauseum in other threads, the definition of “ECM”, “CM”, and “DM”, etc., mean different things to different people and often are umbrella terms–particularly with ECM–for different types of activities that require different skillsets.

As someone who’s done a fair amount of recruiting in this space, I can tell you there are many ECM professionals who spend many years working only in very specific ECM niches with very little exposure to the entire ECM spectrum of solutions.

So, my thoughts to Ann are from the perspective of a technical ECM consultant working on large implementations of packaged ECM offerings, primarily around WCM and document-centric workflows, with moderate amounts of customization.

Soft skills

Change management. The ability to anticipate and smooth out issues related to the substantial amount of change created by the implementation of ECM initiatives is critical.

Communication/leadership. Another key skill is the ability to sell the value of the ECM initiative to executive leaders, build consensus, recruit a champion, etc. Communication skills also play a part in crafting, sharing, and selling a vision of ECM at all levels of an organization.

Business process analysis. Most ECM initiatives include workflow. An ECM professional needs to know how to understand and possibly improve the business processes related to the content being managed.

Subject area expertise. It helps if a professional understands one or more CM “sub-disciplines” or horizontals such as technical publishing, WCM, imaging, compliance, etc. There may also be vertical industry niches in areas such as pharmaceuticals, energy, manufacturing, health care, etc. that professionals may choose to specialize in.

Technical skills:

 – XML/XSL
 – Java or .Net as well as one or more scripting languages
 – Application server platforms
 – Packaged content server offerings
 – Information architecture
 – Scanning hardware, storage solutions, etc.

Regarding academic curricula

As far as academic offerings, using what’s available today it seems like a computer science/library science double major would get you close. Obviously, a purpose-built curriculum incorporating relevant offerings from computer science, library science, and business administration would seem like the most optimal.

Synergy is a vital tool in my home office

I installed a sweet tool today called Synergy. It allows me to use one keyboard/mouse/clipboard across my home workstation and my laptop. At work, I’ve used two monitors connected to my laptop and that works great. But, at home, I find that my workstation’s keyboard and mouse are more ergonomic. Plus, sometimes I like to play internet radio, DVDs, or MP3s from my workstation while I do my serious work on my laptop. Synergy let’s me jump from one machine to the other without leaving the keyboard or mouse simply by moving my mouse from one screen to the other.

Customizing XML app behavior in Documentum

Customizing XML Application Behavior with Java and Type based Business Objects (TBOs). Sometimes it’s necessary to customize the operations supported by Documentum XML Applications to apply business logic and enforce object-specific business rules. Often this can be implemented only by developing additional code. This article discusses writing Java code that can be called from within an XML configuration file and implement a TBO to satisfy these needs. [EMC Documentum Developer Program – New Content]

XSL transformation SBO

Transformation Service (BOF 1.0 Service-based Object). This service provides an interface to apply an XSL stylesheet to an XML document. It uses the DFC Transformation APIs to achieve its purpose and provides the result of the transformation as raw data that can be used by presentation layer for display. In the example provided, the output is saved to an HTML file. UPDATED 31 March, 2005 [EMC Documentum Developer Program – New Content]