Endress+Hauser: Automated, configuration-specific documentation
Initial situation
Endress+Hauser, a global leader in measurement and automation technology, aims to align its technical documentation with the requirements of the digital product world. Although the content is already structured in XML within a component content management system (CCMS), it lacks the level of granularity required for configuration-specific and reusable use.
With a continuously growing product range and increasing variant complexity, technical documentation needs to be aligned with specific product configurations and enable targeted content reuse. At the same time, product data from different systems needs to be better integrated and made usable for documentation.
The focus was on the following requirements:
Providing tailored documentation according to the specific product configuration, including compliance with regulatory requirements
Enabling consistent availability and usability of product data from different systems and locations for documentation purposes
Integrating additional technically relevant information for specific variants
Considering software and other technical data sources, in addition to classic product data
Enabling end-to-end automation of publication processes, particularly for PDF outputs
Project objectives
The overarching goal is to tightly integrate product data, documentation content, and processes to create a scalable foundation for configuration-specific digital documentation.
Specifically, the project pursues several strategic and operational objectives:
Developing a sustainable information architecture, including defined workflows for authoring teams and adjacent functions, such as product management
Harmonizing product data from different systems (e.g., PIM) and integrate it into a knowledge graph
Using product data as the control basis for documentation. Variant-defining metadata should no longer be manually maintained in the CCMS, but instead originate from the knowledge graph and automatically control documentation.
Switching to topic-based authoring using DITA XML
- Establishing an automated publishing pipeline for PDF outputs
- Replacing the existing CCMS with Empolis Content Connect and Oxygen XML Author, including an editing component for the information architecture.
Aufbau einer automatisierten Publikationspipeline für PDF-Ausgaben
parson supports implementation
As part of a preliminary project, Empolis Content Connect was selected as the technical system. It combines a knowledge graph for managing complex product data with a DITA-based CCMS.
parson supported Endress+Hauser in implementing Empolis Content Connect across the entire content and data chain — from product modeling to publication.
Information architecture and product model
- Harmonizing product data from various product data systems
- Developing a concept for the consistent use of PIM data in the knowledge graph
- Enabling Endress+Hauser’s information architects to independently extend product data in the future
- Integrating data, such as software parameters, from proprietary systems into the knowledge graph as a basis for software documentation
- Providing long-term support in building a standardized, enterprise-wide product model
Implementing variant-driven documentation
Together, Endress+Hauser, Empolis, and parson implemented a concept for automatically generating documentation variants based on linked product data. This concept is based on three pillars:
Information model
Defines categories for all editorial content in Endress+Hauser product documentation throughout the product lifecycle, from procurement and transport to commissioning and maintenance.
Product model
Contains product data imported from systems such as PIM, ERP, and software configuration
Links this data within a knowledge graph
Identifies variant-defining product characteristics for technical documentation
Variant selections link the product model and the information model. They control which documentation content is created, reused, and delivered for each product configuration.
Variant selections
- Link the product model and the information model
- Control which documentation content is created, reused, and delivered for which product configuration
The editorial job, or authoring task, is a central element:
- It queries the product and information model to determine which product variant and content categories require editorial content
- Based on this information, the system automatically compiles the necessary information and transfers it to the CCMS
- Technical writers receive a fully configured documentation project with all the necessary information units, which are already fully enriched with metadata via the knowledge graph.
Content reengineering
- Support in transitioning to topic-based writing with DITA in the CCMS
- Revise existing documentation to clearly separate information types
- Prepare for future delivery via a content delivery portal
Technical Implementation
- Customize the DITA DTD to meet project-specific requirements
- Set up an Endress+Hauser-specific framework in Oxygen XML Author and integrate it into the CCMS
- Develop a publication pipeline, including PDF output, using a DITA-OT plugin
Testing and Quality Assurance:
- Design and execute functional tests using ALM Octane
- Bug tracking and requirements management with Jira
Project results
The project established key foundations for product-data driven, configuration-specific technical documentation.
- Sustainable information architecture
- A unified, extensible product model within the knowledge graph
- End-to-end authoring and publication workflows
This enables Endress+Hauser to automatically generate and deliver documentation tailored precisely to the corresponding order configuration.
Integrating the product model and the information model via the knowledge graph is a strategic step toward fully automated, variant-driven documentation, and parson played a key role in this process. They supported us in system implementation and conceptual and structural design. Their expertise in product modeling, metadata concepts, and information architecture was particularly crucial in enabling us to establish a robust, scalable foundation for our future documentation strategy.
Outlook
The project will be expanded step by step. The following tasks are planned:
- Content reengineering
- Expansion of the information architecture
- Integratton of additional data sources
- Further harmonization of product data at corporate level
- Technical support for migrating legacy data into the new CCMS
parson will continue to support Endress+Hauser with the following:
- Adaptations to the DITA Open Toolkit
- Further development of Oxygen XML and editorial workflows
- Content engineering services
- Optimization of layouts and PDF output
These services ensure that parson remains a key partner in the digitalization of technical documentation, focusing on content strategy, information architecture, and the smart, product-data-driven automation of documentation processes.
About Endress+Hauser AG
Endress+Hauser AG is a leading global supplier of measuring instruments, services, and solutions for industrial process engineering. The company offers process solutions for flow, level, pressure, and temperature measurement, for analytical measurements, measurement recording, and digital communication, optimizing processes in terms of the economic efficiency, safety and impact on the environment. Endress+Hauser’s clients operate in a variety of industries, including chemicals, energy and power plants, basic materials and metals, food, life sciences, oil and gas, and water/wastewater.