Background
In 2019, ahead of a major federal cybersecurity audit scheduled for early 2020, I was tasked with reviewing and updating process documentation—known as playbooks—for eight interrelated cybersecurity teams. As the Knowledge Manager, I quickly discovered that while each team had some unique processes, much of the content—particularly front and back matter, regulatory overviews, and standard processes—was duplicated across teams. Recognizing the inefficiency and risk of inconsistencies, I proposed transitioning from Word-based documents to a single-source publishing model using MadCap Flare. This allowed us to consolidate shared content into reusable topics and tailor team-specific language using variables and conditional formatting, enabling fast, accurate output across all deliverables.
The Challenge
- Imminent regulatory audit requiring fast, large-scale documentation updates
- Redundant content managed inconsistently across eight teams
- Lack of standardized language and formatting introduced compliance risk
- Updates required significant manual effort and coordination across writers
- Fragmented storage and duplicated Word files made version control difficult
My Approach
- Migrated all team playbooks into a modular MadCap Flare system
- Consolidated shared content such as revision history, controls, and policies
- Used conditional text and variables to customize deliverables by team
- Created batch output templates for generating PDFs and Word documents
- Delivered an executive summary playbook synthesizing shared and team-specific data
- Developed standardized templates and Word export options for teams needing editable formats
Results
- Reduced update cycles from weeks to days
- Created a new team playbook in under one week (previously ~1 month)
- Improved consistency and accuracy across all deliverables
- Enabled shared review processes, leading to faster error detection
- Supported successful audit readiness with complete, compliant playbooks
- Lowered documentation labor through centralized authoring and batch publishing
Key Takeaways
- Consolidated content improves speed, quality, and consistency
- Conditional text and variables enable targeted outputs without duplicating content
- The value of single-sourcing lies in both output flexibility and long-term maintainability
- Tools like Flare are strategic investments, not just authoring conveniences