Conditional processing in DITA plays a crucial role in tailoring policies and procedures documentation for different government agencies. It allows content creators to create a single source of information that can be customized and filtered to meet the specific needs and requirements of various agencies. This approach streamlines content management, reduces redundancy, and ensures that each agency receives content that aligns with its unique context.

Content Relevance

Conditional processing enables the inclusion or exclusion of specific content based on conditions. For government agencies, this means that policies, procedures, or compliance guidelines that are relevant to one agency but not another can be selectively included. This ensures that each agency receives content that is directly applicable to its operations, avoiding confusion and reducing the risk of non-compliance due to irrelevant information.

Agency-Specific Requirements

Government agencies often have specific requirements, standards, or regulations that are unique to their operations. Conditional processing allows content creators to address these specific requirements within the same document. By tagging content with agency-specific conditions, agencies can receive tailored documentation that meets their needs without the need for separate, agency-specific documents. This approach also simplifies content updates, as changes can be made centrally and applied to relevant agencies as needed.

Example:

Here’s an example of how conditional processing can be used in DITA to tailor documentation for different government agencies:

<policy-document id="government-policy">
  <title>Government Policy: Data Security</title>
  <agency id="agency-a">
    <title>Agency A: Data Security Policy</title>
    <content>This section contains agency-specific content for Agency A.</content>
  </agency>
  <agency id="agency-b">
    <title>Agency B: Data Security Policy</title>
    <content>This section contains agency-specific content for Agency B.</content>
  </agency>
  <common>
    <title>Common Data Security Policy</title>
    <content>This section contains content that is common to all agencies.</content>
  </common>

In this example, the government policy document includes conditional processing for different agencies. Each agency receives a tailored section while sharing common content, ensuring that all agencies get relevant and agency-specific documentation.