MarkLogic at JetBlue Cast Study: Blue Guru CMS

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Patricia Seybold Group

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BlueGuru

JetBlue’s Content Management and Publishing System

By Mitchell Kramer

Sr. VP and Sr. Consultant, Patricia Seybold Group A Case StudyPrepared for Mark Logic by Patricia Seybold Group

BlueGuru

JetBlue’s Content Management and PublishingSystem

By Mitchell Kramer, Sr. VP and Sr. Consultant A Case StudyPrepared for Mark Logic by Patricia Seybold Group

Executive Summary

JetBlue is the seventh-largest passenger air carrier in the U.S., operating over 600 dailyflights on a fleet of 297 aircraft in 19 states, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and five countries inthe Caribbean and Latin America. JetBlue was founded in 1998 and currently employs8,902 full-time and 2,950 part-time “Crewmembers.” The firm is publicly held(NASDAQ: JBLU) and is headquartered in Forest Hills, NY.Like all U.S. air carriers, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations closelygovern JetBlue’s operations. JetBlue can’t fly without FAA certification and continualvalidation. The FAA performs certification and continual validation by examining the

documentation

of an air carrier’s policies, programs, and procedures.JetBlue had a “manual” documentation system called JBDOCS. Its documents weremonolithic manuals, and technical writers who worked in and for operational departmentsmanaged them using manual techniques for creating, editing, and publishing. The writersauthored manuals in Microsoft Word, incorporated their departments’ comments, andpublished completed manuals as PDFs, which were stored in an online library for accessby JetBlue operational staff.FAA requirements, as well as issues in maintaining the integrity and consistency of itsmanuals and the high costs of a decentralized documentation approach, drove JetBlue toreplace JBDOCS with a new distributed content management and publishing systemcalled BlueGuru.BlueGuru has four components: governance, organization, processes, and tools andarchitecture. BlueGuru’s governance structure, the cross-functional Standards Board, wasdesigned to facilitate the organizational and process changes required in thetransformation from JBDOCS. Corporate Publications is BlueGuru’s organizationalcomponent. It’s a new unit responsible for designing, implementing, and supportingdocumentation processes and the tools and technologies that support those processes.Note that document authoring is the responsibility of subject matter experts withinoperational departments. Corporate Publications provides support for their work.

BlueGuru

In tools and architecture, Microsoft Word carries over from JBDOCS as the authoringtool for BlueGuru, and Microsoft SharePoint is used for document editing workflows andapprovals. XML is BlueGuru’s enabling technology, and MarkLogic Server is its mostcritical architectural element. XML addresses JetBlue’s requirements for structureddocuments—multiple types, multiple components within each type, hierarchicalrelationships between components, and component sharing across documents. MarkLogicServer is an XML content management system that automates BlueGuru’s documentationprocesses. Its repository stores BlueGuru’s documents and supports their access andretrieval by Crewmembers, partners, and regulators.This case study report tells the story of JetBlue’s business transformation from adocumentation system of decentralized and manually maintained manuals to a distributedcontent management and publishing system.

JetBlue

JetBlue Airways Corporation is a passenger air carrier that was founded in 1998 andbegan air service on February 11, 2000. The carrier currently employs 8,902 full-time and2,950 part-time “Crewmembers” including 1,745 pilots, 1,938 flight attendants, 3,079airport operations personnel, 441 technicians, 699 reservation agents, and 2,350management and other personnel. JetBlue’s headquarters are in Forest Hills, NY. Thefirm is publicly held (NASDAQ: JBLU). Lufthansa owns a 19 percent share of thecompany’s equity.JetBlue operates 600 daily flights primarily on point-to-point routes in 19 states, PuertoRico, Mexico, and five countries in the Caribbean and Latin America, many of themthrough four focus cities: Boston, Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles/Long Beach, and NewYork/JFK. Based on revenue passenger miles, JetBlue is the seventh largest passengercarrier in the United States. It flies a fleet of 107 Airbus A320 aircraft and 35 Embraer190 aircraft, the youngest and most fuel-efficient fleet of any major U.S. airline.JetBlue categorizes itself as a “value airline” and describes its offering as the “bestdomestic coach product.” Its value proposition is “competitive fares and quality air travelneed not be mutually exclusive.” JetBlue delivers this value proposition through:•

High-quality service and product•

Low operating costs•

Brand strength•

Strength of its peopleLike all U.S. air carriers, JetBlue is regulated by several government agencies includingthe Department of Transportation (DOT) and its Federal Aviation Administration (FAA),the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Occupational Safety and HealthAdministration (OSHA), and the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA). FAAregulations most closely govern JetBlue’s operations. JetBlue can’t fly without FAAcertification for its policies and procedures, its aircraft, and its staff. The FAA requires

Seventh-LargestU.S. AirlineRegulatedOperations