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hi, Mats
Yours is a complex problem (I read your post several times, still not sure I
fully understand ;-). I prob have more questions than answers, but here's my
2 cents:
I wrote/edited technical docs in manufacturing for the first 10 years of my
career (elevators, escalators, & office machine products - had its ups&downs
;-), including internationalization/translation for world markets. But I'm
now in software development support. What you are describing sounds more
like CM for software ...
For software, of course each release is versioned using some kind of
incremental/sequential numbering system, e.g. v1.0 for baseline, 1.1 for
next (full) release, 1.1.1 for a minor release (usually a bug fix) for that
release, and finally v2.0 for a full re-write, and so on. Documentation, of
course, is labeled/titled to match the software versions.
CM (configuration management) is another issue. We use the Rational
ClearCase tool for CM control. On top of that, all artifact deliverables
(code, models, and documentation) are embedded with an in-house scheme we
call a CI number (configuration item), which is a 19 character
(alpha-numeric) code - but I won't bore you with the details.
So, the principle for software documentation is that it matches the software
(code) designation. Hardware may be another story.
For your dilemma, my questions include,
* for a hardware product, how can you have an increment in the control
number for a NEW product? In other words, product Model A has its own
operator's manual; product Model B (even though a common practice of simply
renovating Model A) will have its 'own' manual, uniquely identified, etc. In
other words, maybe product Model B could be designated 2.0 (which is what
happens in software).
* Is the Company remarketing a 'new & improved' product? - or are you just
changing (correcting?) the manuals (for the SAME product)? Also, is your
company really republishing the manuals for what you call 'design' changes
(meaning, simply a 'better way to show/tell' something about the product)? I
cannot imagine being able to justify the cost for that.
* Similarly, if the English product and manual version is the baseline for
all translated versions, why not use the same version designation (except
perhaps adding a coding for the specific language)? I would imagine that the
international product might also have different features/functionality,
which would require the manual to have slightly different content.
Your whole scenario describing 'designing' vs. 'content' changes, then skips
for international versions is simply a recipe for disaster.
Anyway - sorry, Mats, I'm not sure what the final answer is ... please give
me more details and I'll try again.
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