Getting Variants Under Control

In his model, there are several stages to identifying the variants. As soon as different variants are identified, they can be separated and managed in authoring environments as content modules. The advantage of this model for technical writing departments is that the level of detail included in the analysis can individually reflect the needs and capabilities of every authoring department. Not every technical writing department can handle the same number of variants. What is actually possible is determined by factors such as the documented products, the available human resources, and of course, the authoring system that is being used.

So what does this model look like? It always begins at stage 0, the standard that already exists in the technical writing department. This is because almost every company already has different document variants, and also manages them in one way or another. They are often stored in the file system or included in an Excel list, which notes the differences between the various instruction manuals.

During stage 1, the approach becomes pragmatic, looking at which sections are present in all instruction manuals, and how a uniform structure could be produced. The best way forward is to be guided by the table of contents in the various manuals, and mark which text segments are the same, as well as those that are different. It is a matter of identifying which sections are absolutely identical. You can then use these sections as standard sections for your documentation.

At stage 2, you determine whether for some variants, other sections need to be included in addition to the standard. We are still talking about section level here; it is only a matter of identifying additional, optional text segments.

You only start looking at the content in more detail at stage 3. Can you identify any self-contained units within a section that are only added for some variants? These text segments can then also be included as standards in variant management.

Stage 4 now focuses on illustrations. Which illustrations are identical in all instruction manuals, where should symbolic illustrations be used, where is it necessary to change illustrations, captions, and labels? In illustrations, it is sometimes the smallest details that are critical. This aspect of instruction manuals therefore deserves special attention.

We finally arrive at character level in stage 5. Some text segments are largely identical, although a few characters have to be replaced. Typically, this includes product data or product designations. For the sake of simplicity, many technical writing departments combine all product data for all products in a technical data table. But this scenario can quickly become difficult to manage. With the right authoring software, it is often a better solution to provide product data as variables, and change them where relevant.