Glossary · Document and evidence governance
Evidence control
In safety and compliance documentation, evidence control is the governance that ensures evidence remains linked, current, approved and valid for the relevant configuration and claim. It prevents test reports, calculations and analyses from being cited for a product version they do not describe.
- Compliance
- Technical documentation
In one sentence
Evidence control keeps test reports, calculations and analyses linked, approved and valid for the configuration and claim they support.
Example
After a firmware update to the safety PLC of a press, evidence control flags the PL verification and the stopping-time measurement as needing review, because both refer to the previous version.
How it applies
- Evidence: Each item of safety evidence should state what it supports, for which configuration, and under which conditions it was produced. Without this, validity cannot be checked.
- Integrated systems: Link evidence to the configuration baseline. When a component, parameter or software version changes, the linked evidence is automatically suspect until reviewed.
- Technical documentation: The technical file cites evidence. Evidence control ensures the citations point to current, approved versions and that superseded reports are kept but marked.
- AI: For AI-supported functions, evidence is also tied to model version and data; retraining invalidates it in the same way.
Evidence control vs. document control
Document control manages documents as documents: versions, approvals, distribution. Evidence control manages the relationship between evidence, claims and configurations. A test report can be a perfectly controlled document and still be invalid evidence for today's machine; see evidence chain.