Despite the XML format and modularized content, the creation of the manual has become increasingly time-consuming and confusing. Due to many, sometimes only small differences many modules had to be maintained redundantly.
Therefore, DOSCO developed a variant management together with Audi. It allows the marking of all document elements, from chapter to list item, with predefined validity specifications according to target market, model variant, target language and time of use. This allowed the elimination of redundant content.
To create concrete BA for specific models, target markets and -languages, a filter program evaluates the validity specifications accordingly.
The assignment and maintenance of the validity information is a demanding task. Are there contradictions? Do all cross-references still have a target after each filtering? Does every filtering contain all the necessary document elements?
