Lessons learned prototyping an SGML-based computerized document management system

In developing new ways to publish vast amounts of information, many technical communication teams face problems that go far beyond the challenges of one book, a series of books, or even a series of CD-ROMs. Technical communicators begin to face a constellation of problems that are more like those that have plagued software development since it became a distinct profession in the 1960s. At first a project seems promising. Then, as the work begins and progresses, we become enmeshed in interlocking problems of management, purchasing, staffing, training, installation, integration, and vision. This article summarizes the lessons learned from a major effort to use the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) to pull together into a single, accessible, electronic "publication" large amounts of very complicated information.