Technical documentation is a very broad word used in tender documents/Scope Documents. They put the heading as Technical Documentation and in brackets write IETM Level 4 or IETM class 4 mentioning EED-S-048 OR DME 452 OR NCD 1470 JSS 0251 and JSG 0852 standards and ask OEM to deliver in DVDs and some sets of Hard copies.
Some SOTRs may even have Training Aids under Technical documentation.
Steps for Creating Technical Documentation:
(step 1&2 is done by OEM and Step 3 is executed by the IETM Software Vendor)
| STEP 1 (Content writing) | Writing content/ preparing the manual based on the standards (EED-S-048, DME 452 OR NCD 1470.) |
| STEP -2 Standardising/ formatting the content | Converting the raw content into a proper technical document using JSS standard. |
| STEP -3 Converting the final PDF manuals to IETM | Converting the approved/vetted Manul to the IETM database using the IETM authoring tool / IETM software. |
Your Scope or SOTR shared by the Indian Navy to make IETM will have the Standard names i.e. EED-S-048 OR DME 452 OR NCD 1470.
| EED-S-048 | These are Naval standards. | Specification of Documentation for new Construction Ships, |
| DME 452 | The Directorate of Marine Engineering (DME) is a part of the Materiel Branch and works under the overall command and control of the Chief of Materiel, as PSO, and Assistant Chief of Materiel (Dockyard & Refits) as APSO. | Documentation Specifications |
| NCD 1470 | Director of Standardisation – Department of Defence Production | Requirements For Preparation of Documentation For Hull Equipment, Structure, Material and System |
| JSS 0251-01:2015 (Rev no. 2) | JOINT SERVICES SPECIFICATION (JSS) | Procedure for preparation and production of technical publications for electronic and electrical equipment |
| JSG 0852: 2001 Reaffirmed 2019 | Joint Services Guide (JSG) | Indian defence standard to make IETM |
EED-S-048, DME 452, and NCD 1470:
are purely standards defined by the Navy guiding OEMs to follow these guidelines while making documentation. These are purely technical stuff, and only Defence scientists or technical teams of OEMs who were involved in the development of equipment/devices can prepare. They need domain expertise.
These are absolutely in no way relevant to IETM development.
By adhering to EED-S-048 OR DME 452 OR NCD 1470 these standards your technical team will make manuals i.e. User handbooks, Technical Manuals, Maintenance manuals, MRSL etc.
The content may be written poorly formatted by the domain experts as, aesthetically arranging and making a table of contents, header, footers etc. is not the work of technical people.
Once this content is written by the experts the documentation team will come to the picture.
These documents are re-arranged and re-formatted as per JSS – 0251 standards.
Following is the Sequence of Contents to Be Followed While Making Document:
- Front/cover page which is printed on thicker paper or laminated
- The title page is the same as the Front-page
- Record of changes
- List of other associated handbooks
- Safety warnings in red colour
- First-aid instructions
- Cautions & Notes
- Demolition instructions
- Change Notice
- List of contents
- List of illustrations
- Text/ content
- The separate card titled Illustrations
- Illustrations
- Sepaarte card titles Appendix “A” , B,C
- Appendix or appendices
- Back Cover Page
Once the document is made available this will be shared with DGQA and other competent authorities i.e. defence labs etc.
Once these documents are fully vetted they enter into to next phase which is IETM.
The approved PDFs will be shared with IETM vendors like us/code and pixels for converting to IETM based on JSG 0852 standard, which is the standard defined to make IETMs.
In short, the work of the IETM service provider starts, once your final manuals are frozen or vetted by the end client.
The IETM service provider is not an expert in the domain, and the IETM team consists of all the software development team like, Angular Java programmers, database engineers, content integrators, and Quality assurance team etc., and they are not experts in the domain hence what whatever manual is made available to the team they simply convert every line into database and creates Database of the manuals.