Managing review comments and feedback within DITA for construction content is a crucial aspect of collaboration and quality assurance. DITA provides mechanisms for efficiently collecting, tracking, and addressing comments and feedback from various stakeholders involved in the construction documentation process. Here’s how this is typically done:

Commenting and Annotations

DITA allows reviewers to add comments and annotations directly within the content. Reviewers can highlight specific sections or elements in the DITA documents and provide their feedback. These comments are typically stored as part of the document’s metadata and can include information such as the reviewer’s name, timestamp, and the nature of the comment. This ensures that all feedback is associated with the relevant content.

Revision History

As changes and revisions are made to DITA documents, the revision history captures not only the modifications but also any associated comments or feedback. This provides a complete picture of how the content has evolved over time and the interactions between reviewers and content developers. Reviewers can refer back to previous revisions and comments to track the resolution of feedback.

Example:

Here’s an example demonstrating how review comments and feedback can be managed within DITA:

<topic id="structural_analysis">
  <title>Structural Analysis</title>
  <version>1.1</version>
  <last-revised>2023-09-15</last-revised>
  <content>...
  <revision-history>
    <revision>
      <revision-date>2023-09-15</revision-date>
      <author>Engineer A</author>
      <description>Added seismic analysis section.</description>
      <comments>
        <comment>
          <comment-date>2023-09-16</comment-date>
          <commented-by>Architect B</commented-by>
          <comment-text>Consider incorporating wind load calculations here.</comment-text>
        </comment>
      </comments>
    </revision>
    <revision>
      <revision-date>2023-10-02</revision-date>
      <author>Architect B</author>
      <description>Reviewed and approved structural analysis.</description>
      <comments>
        <comment>
          <comment-date>2023-10-03</comment-date>
          <commented-by>Engineer A</commented-by>
          <comment-text>Addressed wind load calculations.</comment-text>
        </comment>
      </comments>
    </revision>
  </revision-history>

In this example, comments and feedback are associated with specific revisions of a DITA topic on structural analysis. Reviewers can provide feedback, and content developers can address and document the resolution of comments, ensuring a transparent and collaborative review process.