Authoring Object Design


	•Introduction of the IETM Authoring process Dave, one of the Document Operation Manager from the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) receives the task to convert the paper technical manual to digital data for the GE 404 engine used in the F/A-18 A&B aircraft. He divides the scanning tasks into logical sections and checks if any of the sections have already been converted to IETM Sections through prior conversions. He then distributes the sections that have not yet been converted to the Document Specialists under his supervision. Jim, one of the Document Specialists receives his assignment from Dave and scans the section of technical manual he's responsible for, using OCR software (such as ACS) in order to convert the text. In addition to that, he scans the document section into a companion tool (such as GCS), to convert the graphics. The result of these operations is an entity called Digital Document in which he checks and corrects the errors introduced by the ACS and graphic tool. Next, the Digital Document is passed to Katherine, a Quality Controller, who checks it and returns it to Jim for more corrections. When that iteration is completed, the document migrates to the next step in the process, the addition of links and structure to the digital document using an AIMSS IETM authoring system by a Technical Manual Writer. The product of the document structuring process is an entity identified as an IETM section. Anne, a Quality Controller assigned for the verification of this entity searches for any errors introduced by the AIMSS IETM authoring system. She verifies its correctness and sends the IETM section to another Quality Controller, Luc, to perform a final verification operation on the IETM Section document. Luc marks the document as approved and redirects it to the Workflow subsystem.
	•Digital document verification As John, a Quality Controller responsible for the verification of a digital document is examining his assigned portion, he finds that a caption is missing for an important diagram. He realizes this correction is critical and attaches a Annotation to the digital document. The Annotation object associated with the digital document identifies the nature and description of the error in the document as well as the steps to rectify the error. Next, John sends the digital document and the associated annotation back to Tom, the Document Specialist responsible for this document, for immediate correction.
	•IETM section verification Joe, a Quality Controller in the IETM section verification process finds that a link is broken as he examines his assigned document. He determines that it is important for this error to be corrected in order for the maintenance personnel to be able to carry out their responsibilities, so he creates an Annotation and enters the description of the error into it. He then sends the IETM section and the associated annotation to May, the technical writer responsible for the correction task described by the annotation.
	•IETM verification A Quality Controller, Jason, realizes that a page is duplicated in the IETM document. He attaches an IETMAnnotation requesting the correction to be made. Jerry, a technical writer receives the notification from the Workflow subsystem that a correction needs to be made in the document he is responsible for. He retrieves the document along with the associated annotation from the workflow subsystem and takes out the indicated duplicate page from the IETM.