Structuring and standardizing solutions can offer a solution. You can fulfill the aim of a set of rules for your team and define a standard. This describes how sections, lists, instructions, and notes – even entire documents – should be constructed. Everyone in your team will then know how something should be drafted. What methods are there for this?
The best known are Functional Design®, Information Mapping® and information design. These are flexible standardization and structuring methods. Flexibility is one of the challenges here – you obtain a method, but you yourself make the rules. So this entails a certain amount of effort. Established standards in the industry are less flexible but get to the point more quickly. Besides the ones that are easy to apply, such as DocBook and DITA, there are the complex works like AECMA SPEC 1000D and ATA iSpec 2200. Is it worth the effort?
The clear answer is: Yes, it’s worth it – the more complex a product, the more suppliers and the bigger the teams. Nevertheless, with each standard, only one thing counts: apply it regularly!
