How do aerospace organizations ensure that documentation in knowledge bases remains relevant and up-to-date with DITA?

November 10, 2023
|By Bryan Tipper

Aerospace organizations use various strategies to ensure that documentation in their knowledge bases remains relevant and up-to-date when implementing DITA. This is crucial to maintain safety standards, compliance, and efficient operations in the aerospace industry.

One strategy is to establish a systematic review and revision process. This process involves regular reviews of the documentation by subject matter experts and stakeholders. They identify areas that require updates due to changes in regulations, technology, or best practices. The DITA content is then revised and approved before it’s updated in the knowledge base.

Another approach is to utilize version control and change tracking within DITA XML. This allows organizations to keep track of changes made to the documentation. By tagging specific revisions, they can maintain a history of updates. When users access the content, they can see the latest version while also having the option to review previous versions for reference.

Example:

Here’s an example of how version control information can be embedded in DITA XML:

<!-- DITA Version Control Information -->
<topic id="safety_procedures" version="2.0" last_modified="2023-11-05" last_modified_by="user123">
  <title>Safety Procedures</title>
  <body>
    <p>...

    <p>...

  </body>
</topic>

In this example, version “2.0” is indicated along with the last modification date and the user who made the change, allowing users to know the state of the content.