IEC TS 62666:2010
(Main)Guidelines for the inclusion of documentation aspects in product standards
Guidelines for the inclusion of documentation aspects in product standards
IEC/TS 62666:2010(E) provides guidelines to ensure consistency with respect to the specification of requirements for information, documentation and graphical symbols in IEC publications provided by system or product committees.
General Information
Relations
Standards Content (Sample)
IEC/TS 62666
®
Edition 1.0 2010-10
TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATION
Guidelines for the inclusion of documentation aspects in product standards
IEC/TS 62666:2010(E)
---------------------- Page: 1 ----------------------
THIS PUBLICATION IS COPYRIGHT PROTECTED
Copyright © 2010 IEC, Geneva, Switzerland
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from either IEC or
IEC's member National Committee in the country of the requester.
If you have any questions about IEC copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication,
please contact the address below or your local IEC member National Committee for further information.
Droits de reproduction réservés. Sauf indication contraire, aucune partie de cette publication ne peut être reproduite
ni utilisée sous quelque forme que ce soit et par aucun procédé, électronique ou mécanique, y compris la photocopie
et les microfilms, sans l'accord écrit de la CEI ou du Comité national de la CEI du pays du demandeur.
Si vous avez des questions sur le copyright de la CEI ou si vous désirez obtenir des droits supplémentaires sur cette
publication, utilisez les coordonnées ci-après ou contactez le Comité national de la CEI de votre pays de résidence.
IEC Central Office
3, rue de Varembé
CH-1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland
Email: inmail@iec.ch
Web: www.iec.ch
About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigenda or an amendment might have been published.
ƒ Catalogue of IEC publications: www.iec.ch/searchpub
The IEC on-line Catalogue enables you to search by a variety of criteria (reference number, text, technical committee,…).
It also gives information on projects, withdrawn and replaced publications.
ƒ IEC Just Published: www.iec.ch/online_news/justpub
Stay up to date on all new IEC publications. Just Published details twice a month all new publications released. Available
on-line and also by email.
ƒ Electropedia: www.electropedia.org
The world's leading online dictionary of electronic and electrical terms containing more than 20 000 terms and definitions
in English and French, with equivalent terms in additional languages. Also known as the International Electrotechnical
Vocabulary online.
ƒ Customer Service Centre: www.iec.ch/webstore/custserv
If you wish to give us your feedback on this publication or need further assistance, please visit the Customer Service
Centre FAQ or contact us:
Email: csc@iec.ch
Tel.: +41 22 919 02 11
Fax: +41 22 919 03 00
---------------------- Page: 2 ----------------------
IEC/TS 62666
®
Edition 1.0 2010-10
TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATION
Guidelines for the inclusion of documentation aspects in product standards
INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
PRICE CODE
U
ICS 01.110 ISBN 978-2-88912-195-3
® Registered trademark of the International Electrotechnical Commission
---------------------- Page: 3 ----------------------
– 2 – TS 62666 © IEC:2010(E)
CONTENTS
FOREWORD.3
INTRODUCTION.5
1 Scope.6
2 Normative references .6
3 Terms and definitions .6
4 Principal guidelines .9
4.1 Adaptation to the needs of the system or product .9
4.2 Adaptation to the structure of the publication.9
5 Requirements to be covered.10
5.1 Information requirements.10
5.2 Documentation requirements.11
5.2.1 General .11
5.2.2 Structuring the documentation .12
5.2.3 Identification and classification .13
5.2.4 Document kinds, their purpose and preparation .14
5.2.5 Graphical symbols .15
5.2.6 Characteristic properties and data element types .16
5.3 Requirements on documentation generated by tools other than CAx tools .17
Annex A (informative) Example of a clause specifying documentation requirements for
a complex system or product .18
Annex B (informative) Example of a clause specifying documentation requirements for
a simple (consumer) product.21
Index .24
Bibliography.25
---------------------- Page: 4 ----------------------
TS 62666 © IEC:2010(E) – 3 –
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
GUIDELINES FOR THE INCLUSION OF DOCUMENTATION ASPECTS
IN PRODUCT STANDARDS
FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote
international co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To
this end and in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications,
Technical Reports, Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC
Publication(s)”). Their preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested
in the subject dealt with may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-
governmental organizations liaising with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely
with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by
agreement between the two organizations.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international
consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all
interested IEC National Committees.
3) IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National
Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC
Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any
misinterpretation by any end user.
4) In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications
transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence
between any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in
the latter.
5) IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity
assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. IEC is not responsible for any
services carried out by independent certification bodies.
6) All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
7) No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and
members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or
other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and
expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC
Publications.
8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
9) Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this IEC Publication may be the subject of
patent rights. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
The main task of IEC technical committees is to prepare International Standards. In
exceptional circumstances, a technical committee may propose the publication of a technical
specification when
• the required support cannot be obtained for the publication of an International Standard,
despite repeated efforts, or
• the subject is still under technical development or where, for any other reason, there is the
future but no immediate possibility of an agreement on an International Standard.
Technical specifications are subject to review within three years of publication to decide
whether they can be transformed into International Standards.
IEC 62666, which is a technical specification, has been prepared by IEC technical committee
3: Information structures, documentation and graphical symbols.
---------------------- Page: 5 ----------------------
– 4 – TS 62666 © IEC:2010(E)
The text of this technical specification is based on the following documents:
Enquiry draft Report on voting
3/994/DTS 3/1006/RVC
Full information on the voting for the approval of this technical specification can be found in
the report on voting indicated in the above table.
This publication has been drafted in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
The committee has decided that the contents of this publication will remain unchanged until
the stability date indicated on the IEC web site under "http://webstore.iec.ch" in the data
related to the specific publication. At this date, the publication will be
• transformed into an International standard,
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn,
• replaced by a revised edition, or
• amended.
A bilingual version of this technical specification may be issued at a later date.
---------------------- Page: 6 ----------------------
TS 62666 © IEC:2010(E) – 5 –
INTRODUCTION
This technical specification is developed in response to expressed needs for guidelines for
the inclusion of requirements for documentation in product and system standards.
The body of the publication is written with Product Committee Secretaries, PT- and MT-
members, etc. in mind as the target group, providing some basic information on
documentation principles and explanations and justification as to why the references to
documentation standards should be made. It is assumed that experts developing product
standards do not necessarily have relevant documentation aspects as their primary interest.
As a consequence, the text may be found by some to be too “educative” for a standard.
However, in a guideline it may be more appropriate.
The two annexes are examples intended to be used as templates for how texts should be
included in product standards.
---------------------- Page: 7 ----------------------
– 6 – TS 62666 © IEC:2010(E)
GUIDELINES FOR THE INCLUSION OF DOCUMENTATION ASPECTS
IN PRODUCT STANDARDS
1 Scope
This technical specification provides guidelines to ensure consistency with respect to the
specification of requirements for information, documentation and graphical symbols in IEC
publications provided by system or product committees.
NOTE 1 For guidelines regarding inclusion of graphical symbols to be used on equipment, please refer to
IEC 62648.
NOTE 2 This publication is based on and customizes IEC Guide 108 without deviation.
2 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of this document.
For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition
of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 9000:2005, Quality management systems – Fundamentals and vocabulary
ISO 9001:2008, Quality management systems – Requirements
NOTE Details of other documents referenced in this technical specification are provided in the Bibliography at the
end of the publication.
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
NOTE 1 In the definitions, terms that are defined elsewhere in this clause are shown in italics.
NOTE 2 An alphabetical index, including these terms as well, is contained at the end of the publication.
NOTE 3 Definitions taken over from other International Standards are not necessarily cited verbatim, but are
adapted to the form required for definitions according to the ISO/IEC Directives.
3.1
knowledge
body of understanding and skills
NOTE The “body of understanding” can e.g. consist of facts, concepts and instructions.
3.2
information
knowledge that is communicated
3.3
data
representation of information in a formalized manner suitable for communication,
interpretation or processing
NOTE Data can be processed by humans or by automatic means.
---------------------- Page: 8 ----------------------
TS 62666 © IEC:2010(E) – 7 –
3.4
data carrier
material on which data can be stored
3.5
medium
means of representing data on a data carrier
3.6
data element type
DET
unit of data for which the identification, description and value representation have been
specified
[IEC 61360-1:2009, definition 2.3]
3.7
document
fixed and structured amount of information that can be managed and interchanged as a unit
between users and systems
NOTE 1 This unit may not necessarily be human perceptible. Information is usually stored as data on a data
medium.
[IEC 82045-1:2001, definition 3.2.3 modified]
NOTE 2 “users” refers in this definition to users of information and “systems” refers to systems managing
information and documentation.
3.8
document kind
type of document defined with respect to its specified content of information and form of
presentation.
[IEC 61355-1:2008, definition 3.6]
3.9
document set
collection of different documents which is intended to be treated as a unit
NOTE Document sets may consist of documents and composite documents.
[IEC 61355-1:2008, definition 3.4]
3.10
documentation
collection of documents related to a given subject
NOTE 1 This may include technical, commercial and/or other documents.
NOTE 2 The term may refer to objects in the sense of IEC 81346 or to other things to be addressed.
NOTE 3 A documentation can consist of documents, composite documents and document sets.
NOTE 4 The number and kinds of documents in a documentation can differ according to purpose.
[IEC 61355-1:2008, definition 3.5]
3.11
domain
distinguished part of an abstract or physical space where something exists
NOTE A domain can be e.g. an organization or a country or a part of it.
---------------------- Page: 9 ----------------------
– 8 – TS 62666 © IEC:2010(E)
1
[IEC 62507-1 , definition 3.2]
3.12
object
entity treated in a process of development, implementation, usage and disposal
NOTE 1 The object may refer to a physical or non-physical “thing”, i.e. anything that might exist, exists or did
exist.
NOTE 2 The object has information associated to it.
[IEC 81346-1:2009, definition 3.1]
3.13
characteristic property
defined parameter suitable for the description and differentiation of objects
[IEC/PAS 62569-1:2009, definition 3.1.6]
3.14
identifier
attribute associated with an object to unambiguously identify it in a specified domain
NOTE In an identification system several types of identifiers may be required.
[IEC 62507-1, definition 3.8]
3.15
identification number
ID
string of characters representing the value of the identifier
NOTE 1 It is practice that although the term says “number” the string can contain other types of characters as
well.
NOTE 2 Note that the term “identifier” as being an attribute and the term ”identification number” as being the
value of that attribute are here considered different things, but they are often mixed in existing definitions.
NOTE 3 Identification numbers are often required to be unique (an object shall have one number only). This is an
unnecessarily strong requirement, it is sufficient if they are unambiguous within a specified domain. An object may
have more than one identification number.
Furthermore, it is assumed in the definition that an organization may be responsible for more than one
identification number domain. This is a commonly occurring situation when organizations are merged, etc.
[IEC 62507-1, definition 3.5]
3.16
horizontal standard
standard on fundamental principles, concepts, terminology or technical characteristics,
relevant to a number of technical committees and of crucial importance to ensure the
coherence of the corpus of standardization documents
[IEC Guide 108:2006, definition 3.1]
3.17
product publication
publication covering a specific product or group of related products
NOTE 1 In this technical specification, the term product includes items such as process, service, installation and
combinations thereof, commonly known as systems.
—————————
1
To be published.
---------------------- Page: 10 ----------------------
TS 62666 © IEC:2010(E) – 9 –
[IEC Guide 108:2006, definition 3.2, modified]
NOTE 2 “product publication” refers in this definition to publications issued by IEC. The same term is sometimes
used by product manufacturers with a different meaning.
3.18
commissioning
procedures prior, or related, to the handing over of a product ready for putting into service,
including final acceptance testing, the handing over of all documentation relevant to the use
of the product and, if necessary, instructing personnel
2
[IEC 82079-1 , definition 3.2]
4 Principal guidelines
4.1 Adaptation to the needs of the system or product
Documentation is a result of development and engineering of a system or a product. Its major
purpose is to enable the system or product to be manufactured and supplied to users for
intended use.
The provision of information in the form of documentation is an integral part of any delivery of
a system or product, one purpose being to transfer knowledge of the system or product from
the supplier to the user.
The documents accompanying the system or the product are a subset of the total number of
documents on it. Documents for manufacturing and results of testing are examples of other
kinds of documents. The information accompanying the system or the product should promote
correct and safe application and use of the system or product for the remaining part of its
lifecycle.
Product standards should therefore specify required
• information, and
• documentation.
The primary requirement concerns the information needs and the structuring of this
information so that required information can be easily accessed by users.
A secondary requirement is how this information is “packaged” and presented in the form of a
logically related collection of documents, i.e. the documentation for the system or product on
relevant media.
The requirements concerning the documentation and the amount of documents needed
depend on the complexity of the system or product as well as on the intended use and the
kinds of users expected to use the system or product, and may thus vary. The specified
requirements in the system or product standard should therefore be adapted to the needs in
the actual case.
4.2 Adaptation to the structure of the publication
In a product publication, the requirements on information and documentation should
preferably be collected in one clause with subclauses for information and documentation
requirements respectively.
—————————
2
In preparation.
---------------------- Page: 11 ----------------------
– 10 – TS 62666 © IEC:2010(E)
The requirements should be included by referencing to the relevant specialized
documentation standards where available, in order to keep the content of the references up to
date with actual development of these standards.
For the sake of understanding and promotion, the referencing should not only be made by
listing standard identification numbers of such standards but should also be accompanied by
some introductory information for explanation and justification of each reference.
If there are special documentation requirements not yet covered by existing standards, these
should be incorporated as text in the system or product standard. In such cases the relevant
IEC or ISO committee should also be informed about the missing information for due
consideration of revision of existing standards or development of new ones.
NOTE Before making such a proposal, consideration should be given to the fact that the terminology used in the
documentation standards, for example names of document types, may be different compared to the terminology
used among experts in the product committee. The database IEC 61355 (http://std.iec.ch/iec61355 ) contains the
recommended terminology, but also a number of synonyms, and suggestions on how to deal with these. This may
be helpful for finding out if such a situation is present.
Clause 5 provides information on the requirements covered in available documentation
standards. The purpose of this clause is to make readers aware of the content in order to
decide whether or not the requirements are relevant for the actual product publication.
Annex A is intended as a template for a clause covering “Technical documentation” in a
product standard for a comprehensive system or equipment (for example industrial plant or
installation), which requires comprehensive documentation. In this case the product may also
be expected to be modified by the user during its remaining lifetime and its documentation is
therefore to be updated and maintained by the user. In this case, the amount of required
technical documents can be high.
Annex B is intended as a template for a clause covering “Technical documentation” in a
product standard for a relatively simple (from the user’s perspective) consumer product that
requires a simple installation or no installation at all. The supplied documentation is not
intended to be updated nor maintained by the user, and it therefore focuses on the activities
to be performed by the end user. In this situation, the amount of technical documents needed
can be expected to be low.
Note that these annexes are examples only which can be reduced as well as extended for a
specific purpose.
All IEC deliverables should be prepared in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
Subclause 6.6.5 of the directives, regarding the use of figures, including drawings, diagrams
and graphical symbols in publications, is based on, and also refers to publications described
below, i.e. the requirements on documentation in product standards are also applicable to the
publications themselves.
5 Requirements to be covered
5.1 Information requirements
The general purpose of the documentation of a system or a product is to enable its
development, provide information for its manufacturing or assembly, document in test reports
its required properties or performance and transfer knowledge of the system or product from
the supplier to the user.
The purpose of that part of the documentation accompanying a delivered system or product is
to provide the information necessary for the remaining activities in its lifecycle, i.e. usually for
the installation and application, operation and maintenance, and disassembly and recycling of
the system or product.
---------------------- Page: 12 ----------------------
TS 62666 © IEC:2010(E) – 11 –
The amount of information can be very large, and therefore the structuring of such
information, and thus also the structuring of the documentation itself, is important for quick
and efficient retrieval of information. The requirements in standards shall thus point out the
necessity of well organized and informative documentation, both with regard to single
products and to systems.
The basis for the structuring of information is the assumption that:
• descriptive information shall be structured in a way that “models” how a user of the
information perceives the system or product from different aspects; and
• activity-related information shall be structured along activities during the lifecycle of the
delivered system or product.
Both these major types of information shall normally be provided. In simpler cases (e.g. a
small consumer product), they may be provided in a single document.
NOTE The document type “Instructions for use” is the minimum set of information that should be supplied for any
product, see future IEC 82079-1.
In more complex cases (e.g. industrial plants and installations with separately defined sub-
systems and components) the information needs to be structured into sets of documents.
The basic steps involved in structuring a set of documents, i.e. deciding the scope of
information to be presented in each document, include:
a) organizing the documentation with regard to the sub-systems and components
constituting the entire system or product, see IEC 62023 and IEC 81346-1;
b) within a system or a product or its constituents, preparing the descriptive documentation
with regard to the kind of information contained (for example circuit diagram, assembly
drawing, etc), see IEC 61355 for possible document kinds;
c) organize the documentation containing activity-related information with regard to the
lifecycle of the system or product, within the framework defined in accordance with a),
see IEC 61355 for possible document kinds.
The documentation shall be so prepared that duplication of information among the documents
is minimized. Thus, the complete set of documents for a certain system or product prepared
by the manufacturer or supplier in accordance with relevant documentation standards shall be
considered as the basic or source documentation for that system or product.
The source information (documents, database content, etc.) shall be kept by the owner party
in accordance with applicable requirements of the ISO 9000 series (especially ISO 9001) or
for any legal purposes or policies of the owner party.
Any other agreed requirements on structuring or distribution of documentation in certain
containers (structured to suit the user organisation(s) or structured to suit the agreed types of
media to be supplied, etc.) shall be considered as copies and may not influence the structure
of the original documentation. In other words, any such supplied document set shall be
considered as a copy. It may be a subset of the original document set.
5.2 Documentation requirements
5.2.1 General
The documentation shall be supplied in the form most appropriate for conveying the
information, for example: drawings, diagrams, charts, tables, instructions (text, audio, video).
Standards related to products and systems shall not only require that documents should be
included in the delivery but also that the documents shall be prepared and named in
accordance with relevant documentation standards.
---------------------- Page: 13 ----------------------
– 12 – TS 62666 © IEC:2010(E)
The documentation shall be supplied as a document set on a medium or on media suitable for
the environment where the information is expected to be needed, for example paper,
electronic file on ROM, (separated from the delivered system or product or integrated into it)
or via Internet. Due to the varying needs and continuous development in this area, the type(s)
of medium may need to be agreed upon by the involved parties in the contract.
For the sake of clarification of the responsibility for the delivered system or product and as a
record of the business transaction, the documentation shall at least be delivered as a
document set in non-revisable form.
NOTE The PDF-A format as specified in ISO 19005-1 can be mentioned as an example of a non-revisable form.
This format is specifically recommended for long archiving periods.
A delivered system or product may be foreseen to be changed or modified after delivery. As a
consequence its documentation may need to be revised. To facilitate this, the documentation
(or parts of it) may additionally need to be delivered as a document set in revisable form.
Deliveries of revisable document sets should be agreed upon by the involved parties in the
contract.
5.2.2 Structuring the documentation
5.2.2.1 General
The structuring is dealt with in the following standards.
IEC 81346-1 Industrial systems, installations and equipment and industrial product
...
Questions, Comments and Discussion
Ask us and Technical Secretary will try to provide an answer. You can facilitate discussion about the standard in here.