Can DITA facilitate the documentation of aerospace safety and quality standards?

November 10, 2023
|By Bryan Tipper

DITA is a valuable tool for facilitating the documentation of aerospace safety and quality standards. In the aerospace industry, compliance with stringent safety and quality standards is paramount. DITA enables organizations to structure and manage their documentation in a way that ensures adherence to these standards while also providing an efficient means of documenting and accessing critical information.

For example, in the context of aerospace safety documentation, DITA allows organizations to create specialized topic types and elements tailored to safety procedures, compliance guidelines, and quality standards. These specialized elements make it easier to document specific safety protocols, equipment maintenance procedures, and regulatory requirements. Aerospace organizations can develop DITA specialization profiles that precisely match their industry-specific needs, ensuring that the content remains compliant.

Example:

Consider a scenario where an aerospace organization needs to document safety procedures for aircraft maintenance. They can create a specialized DITA topic type called <airsafetyprocedure> to document these procedures. The following example demonstrates a simple DITA topic specialization for an aircraft safety procedure:

<!-- Example of a DITA specialization for aircraft safety procedure -->
<topic id="air-safety-procedure">
  <title>Aircraft Safety Procedure</title>
  <body>
    <p><shortdesc>Aircraft safety procedure for maintenance.</shortdesc>
    <steps>
      <step><cmd>Inspect the landing gear.</cmd> Check for any damage or wear.</step>
      <step><cmd>Check the engine.</cmd> Ensure it's functioning correctly.</step>
      <step><cmd>Verify all safety systems are operational.</cmd> Test all safety features.</step>
    </steps>
  </body>
</topic>

In this example, DITA specialization is used to create a topic type specifically designed for documenting aircraft safety procedures, ensuring that the content aligns with aerospace safety and quality standards.