Resources: Documentation Standards

This list was posted in May, 2005. Entries after that time are dated (month and year, for example, June 2005). The section " Standards" is followed by a section "Setting standards."

Standards

ANSI/NISO Z39.18 Scientific and Technical Reports — Preparation, Presentation and Preservation. Provides guidelines about the preparation, presentation, and preservation of scientific and technical reports.
http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/Z39-18-2005final.pdf. Updated August 2005.

ANSI Z535.4 Standard for Product Safety Signs and Labels.

In the Fall 2002 issue of the ES&H SIG STC newsletter http://www.stcsig.org/esh/newsletter/newsletter.html there is an article called "ANSI standards for Safety Warnings," with references.

ASD (Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe, formerly European Association of Aerospace Industries or AECMA). ASD-STE100. ASD Simplified Technical English Specification (formerly AECMA Document PSC-85-16598. AECMA Simplified English). http://www.asd-europe.org/. Source: Stan Green, Senior Member, Oklahoma Chapter. Standards page, ITC SIG of STC.

Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA); an OASIS Standard.
http://www.oasis-open.org/news/oasis_news_06_01_05.php. Posted August 2005.

IEEE P1063, Standard for Software User Documentation.

ISO (International Standards Organization), JTC1 (Joint Technical Committee 1) (for information technology) SC 7 (SubCommittee 7) (for Systems and Software Engineering), WG2 (Working Group 2) (for systems and software documentation). Systems and Software Documentation Standards. For more information: http://www.hci.com.au/iso/ Published standards:

ISO/IEC proposed standard 26511 for managers of user documentation is being developed via Project 11. http://www.hci.com.au/iso/project%5F11/. Posted December 2005.

ISO 12119 Part 5, addresses assessment of life cycle processes, including documentation and work products.

ISO/IEC 12207 and ISO/IEC 15289.
ISO/IEC 12207 Standard for Software Life Cycle Processes. STC Fellow Annette Reilly represents STC to the ISO standards group responsible for ISO/IEC 12207 and has provided this information in posts to STC lists and other reports.

ISO/IEC 15289, Systems and Software Engineering — Content of systems and software life cycle process information products (Documentation). Forthcoming; identifies the documentation requirements of 12207. STC Fellow Annette Reilley is the editor.

ISO/IEC 15289 identifies information items, that is, requirements for documentation from 12207 by project phase. The content of each information item is specified.

For ease of reference each information item is described as a separate document. However, information items can be unpublished but available for reference or combined with other information items in one document, as well as published separately. Those adopting the standard decide the exact deliverables for the project.

ISO/IEC 12207 and its two amendments and guides. Posted May 2006.

101 Standards for Online Communication (on the STC website). This is a list of guidelines. Posted April 2006.

TC Europe, a union of European national technical communication societies (one per nation). Guidelines, "Usable and safe operating manuals for consumer goods," are available for download at http://www.tceurope.org/pdf/securedoc1_04.pdf.

Setting documentation standards

These April 2006 entries are from the April 2006 newsletter of the Management SIG of STC.

Article on STC website on successfully setting documentation standards, complete with potential pitfalls.

"Managing standards" by Ken Rigby (setting documentation standards as an aspect of technical management).

"Framework for a documentation standard" by Ken Rigby.