Glossary · Safety information
Technical documentation
Also known as: product documentation, technical communication
German: Technische Dokumentation
In technical documentation practice, technical documentation is the controlled information describing a product or system for design, conformity, installation, operation, maintenance, service and disposal. It includes internal documentation for manufacturers and authorities as well as information for use supplied to users.
- Technical documentation
- Compliance
In one sentence
Technical documentation is the controlled information about a product for design, conformity, installation, operation, maintenance, service and disposal.
Example
The technical documentation of an integrated bottling line includes design drawings, the risk assessment and test reports kept by the manufacturer, and the operating and maintenance manuals delivered to the plant.
Explained in context
Context cards connect this term with others to answer one question. Also in British English and German.
How it applies
- Two audiences: Internal technical documentation, such as the technical file, proves conformity to authorities. External documentation, the information for use, enables users to work safely. Both must describe the same product version.
- Machinery law: The Machinery Regulation uses “technical documentation” for what the Machinery Directive calls the technical file. In everyday language, the term also covers user documentation.
- Governance: All parts need document control and traceability to engineering data, so that changes propagate.
- Metadata: Standards such as iiRDS describe delivered documentation with machine-readable metadata, which makes it usable in portals and assistants.
Technical documentation vs. technical documentation (AI Act)
Under the EU AI Act, technical documentation (AI Act) is a defined legal term: the Annex IV documentation that providers of high-risk AI systems draw up for authorities and notified bodies. It corresponds to the technical file in machinery law, not to user documentation. For AI in machinery, both are needed and should be maintained in one system.