The end of another eventful year

As the end of 2009 approaches I guess that we can reflect back at the S1000D Scene and reckon that a fair amount has happened.

Issue 4 has had a fix, other parts of the specification are being looked at for improvement, new areas of control and functionality(?) are being pursued.

ATA and S1000D

The ATA organisation (who appear to have taken over the organisation of S1000D related events) have announced their next forum which is to take place in May 2010 in Seattle (see the ATA Site via this link). The programme not surprisingly has yet to be finalised. In theircall for papers they pose the following questions:

• Do you have solutions for particular technical or business problems you may have encountered?
• Are you on the leading edge of implementing new standards?
• Are you finding new and creative ways to broaden your implementation?
• Are the ATA or S1000D standards a key component of your business strategy?

Clearly for some of us the fourth question has to be a resounding "Yes" so I guess that potentially there could be a number of papers here from organisations that are really using the specification for day to day work some of which is not defence industry biased. The big problem here is that those companies will be fully commercial organisations where there is no budget for taking part in the broader discussions. Perhaps it is time for another S1000D event in Europe.

S1000D Functionality

I have heard that due to the current complexity of Issue 4 there have been calls for a S1000D Lite.

I think that those making the call actually has lost sight of the fact that it is already there in the guise of Business Rules. In those rules for a project the actual structures to be used are defined.

There is a simple rule here: "If you don't want to use one of the 'new' S1000D bits then don't specify them in the Business rules". In fact why not specifically exclude them. If your delivery method does not need a flashy S1000D applicability processing, or your IETM only has to be a fairly basic S1000D application, or your output is paper based (yes there is an increasing user base who want paper - and they are not Luddites) then only use the parts of S1000D specification that will give you what you need.

So to the Break

So as we move towards the break and a new year may I wish you all the best of seasons greetings. I hope that those of you who do have a break at this time of year find it is refreshing and recuperating time.

I also hope that you will all find 2010 a more prosperous time as the world begins to settle down benefit from a more stable financial environment.