Glossary · Document and evidence governance
Document control
In quality and document management, document control is the governance of identification, review, approval, versioning, distribution, access and retention of controlled documents, so that the right version is available where it is needed and obsolete versions are not used by mistake.
- Technical documentation
- Compliance
In one sentence
Document control governs how controlled documents are identified, reviewed, approved, versioned, distributed, accessed and retained.
Example
When the maintenance procedure for a CNC spindle changes, document control ensures the new revision is approved, published to the service portal, printed copies are replaced, and the old revision is archived as superseded.
How it applies
- Technical documentation: Document control covers the whole chain from source topic to delivered output, including translations and derived formats such as quick guides, labels and in-machine help.
- Distribution: The process is only as good as its last step. Define how users at the machine receive new revisions and how obsolete copies are withdrawn.
- Retention: Keep superseded versions for as long as the law or contracts require and link them to the products and serial numbers they were valid for.
- AI and retrieval: Search indexes and assistants are distribution channels too. They must be updated and purged under the same rules; see AI-assisted documentation.
Document control vs. change control
Change control decides whether and how a product or system is changed. Document control manages the documents, including those that describe the change. A released engineering change is incomplete until document control has updated every affected controlled document, and the time this takes is the documentation latency.