S1000D-compliant illustrations - ISTC

26 Illustration
S1000D-compliant illustration files
David Manock describes how this technical publications standard
affects the creation and delivery of illustration files.
Figure 2. S1000D organisation chart
Introduction
S1000D is a standard that controls the creation
and delivery of technical publications. Although
the standard applies to all publication elements,
this article focuses particularly on its impact on
illustration files.
If you work in the military or aerospace
sectors, you may already be familiar with
S1000D. Its profile has been raised recently
by its proposed adoption by the US DoD
(Department of Defense). In Europe, the story
is very different: defence ministries and
prime defence contractors have used S1000D
successfully for many years on various projects,
including Eurofighter (Figure 1).
There are several reasons for the growing
influence of S1000D, with two being particularly
important. The first is the emergence of many
more multi-country military projects, where
one standard is preferable and cost savings can
made by unifying information. The second, and
probably more compelling for suppliers, is the
mandating of S1000D by the defence ministries;
in other words, you have no choice but to supply
documentation that complies with the standard.
The impact, financially and organisationally, of
S1000D can be substantial. It requires new skills
to be developed by those writing, illustrating,
managing and delivering technical publications.
History of S1000D
S1000D emerged in the early 1980s, with the
purpose of developing a global standard for
technical documentation, similar in philosophy
to the civil airline standard ATA100. Most early
applications of S1000D were in military aerospace
projects. Although the standard could be adopted
by other industries, this has not yet taken place.
The main reason for the bias towards aerospace
was that S1000D was originally developed to
support air vehicles and their support equipment.
This has changed, with S1000D now supporting
land and sea equipment, as well as air.
Primarily a European standard, governance is
provided by ASD (the Aerospace and Defence
Industries Association of Europe), which
was formerly known as AECMA (Association
Européenne des Constructeurs de Matériel
Aérospatial). The involvement of the USA has
required additional transatlantic governance of
S1000D; this is provided by the AIA (Aerospace
Industries Association). However, ASD and the
AIA do not develop or maintain S1000D. This
task is in the hands of specific councils
and working groups. Figure 2
shows an overview of the
organisation.
The latest significant
development is an investigation,
being carried out by
representatives of the
ATA (Air Transport
Association) and
the S1000D
organisations, to
determine the feasibility of merging the civil
standard iSpec2200 with S1000D. This is an ironic
twist, considering that one of the prime reasons
for developing S1000D all those years ago was in
response to the ATA standard of the time.
Principal concepts of S1000D
The S1000D standard is a substantial document,
containing over 2000 pages. The current version
is Issue 2.2, with the next release due in mid-
2006. The defining concept that separates
S1000D from other documentation standards
is the Data Module, a chunk of information
utilised to support the equipment in question. A
Data Module can contain different information
types (such as descriptive, procedural and
fault diagnosis) to aid the maintenance of
the equipment or even the business rules for
managing the project.
The traditional technical publication is usually
a manual or suite of manuals with a linear
structure, containing chapters, sections and
pages. S1000D has a modular structure; this is
based on Information Sets, which are collections
of Data Modules, categorised under general
headings (such as maintenance, operational and
illustrated parts data). The modular approach
Communicator Spring 2006