#ietm developement

EED-S-048, DME 452, and NCD 1470 are Navy standards for equipment documentation, not directly related to IETM development. Your technical team uses these standards to create manuals. Once approved, the content is formatted to JSS – 0251 standards and shared with IETM vendors like Code and Pixels for conversion to IETMs based on JSG 0852 standard.

IETM comes with authoring tools, content management tools, and user management capabilities. Features like viewing activities, managing annotations, and managing bookmarks are all part of the user dashboard. We also discuss how administrators may access user login history, assessments, feedback, and other useful information.

IETM: Interactive Electronic Technical Manual

Training Aids to Defence Client

If you are a supplier of defence then along with the system/equipment you also need to provide Training Aids

(CBT) — Computer-Based Training

Charts and Bloups

Video Film

Training Work Modules

Manuals Hard Copies

IETM

Evolution of Documentation in Defence

Before — Hardcopies and PDFs in DVDs (Upto 2015)

What is the meaning of the IETM?

Manual: Manual means any literature organized or written in a prescribed manner to guide the user.

TechnicalManual: This means the literature is technical, like user manuals, maintenance manuals etc. Hard copy

Electronic Technical Manual: This means the manual is available in the form of an electronic version which simply means digital format or softcopy. It can be a PDF file or a database-driven software application.

Interactive Electronic Technical Manual:

Let us first understand the meaning of Interactive. The meaning of interactive is two people or things influencing each other.

Allowing a two-way flow of information between an electronic device /computer and a user; responding to a user’s input.

Involving the actions or input of a user. Especially

It means when the Electronic User manuals Interact and respond with the user, that is you, it will become an Interactive Electronic Technical manual.

Interactive Features

Interactivity

Hyperlinks

Hot Spots

Text hotspot

Image hotspot

VideHotspot

Bookmarks

User wise bookmarks

Navigation

Linear navigation

Non-liner navigation

Page Search

Global search

Best matched

Content tree

Related topics

Core IETM

Documents

Drawings

Annotation

User wise bookmarks

The documents and pages are many hence, for easy and fast accessibility complete content is converted and stored as a database.

Whenever the user wants some information, IETM software produces the information in a fraction of a second.

Use or Purpose of the IETM?

The purpose of the Manual is to give information related to the equipment to the end user for quick reference.

All the technicality is written in detail so that when an issue arises, the user can refer to the manual, as every time OEM or technical person or subject matter expert might not be available on the spot to resolve the issue.

If the manual has 10 pages users can refer easily.

But any system used by the defence will have multiple manuals and thousands of page counts and many times a user has to cross-refer between manuals, intra-manual and inter-manual to resolve the issue.

Referring to 10- 15 hard-copy or even soft-copy books simultaneously will be difficult and time-consuming.

How to access the IETM ?

IETM is a web-based application like our bank software or any other web application. The graphic user interface will be provided to use IETM through which users can interact and get the desired data.

Like all other standard software, Unauthorized users cannot access the IETM. IETM is a Login - login-based application. Only users having valid Login credentials can access the software.

Based on the user log credentials data will be provided to the user.

IETM has 2 types of Users and one Administrator

Maintainer

Operator

If the operator logs in, the user gets all the content related to operator use, similarly if the maintainer logs in only maintenance-related content is visible for that user.

Ideally, all the content is available for both users, because the purpose of the IETM is to refer to the manual to fix the issue.

Administrators can create users who can see the user’s navigation and log-in history and interact with the users using user dashboards through Annotations.

What Inputs are Needed? (From OEM to Create IETM)

All the softcopies of user manuals to be converted to IETM.

All images Videos, and drawings to be integrated into IETM.

Subject matter expert to resolve technical clarifications

Table of contents/tree structure.

Minimum Hardware Requirements?

NO High-end hardware or servers are required to run IETM.

However, if more concurrent users, then a good configuration server with good LAN connectivity must be ensured.

i3 with 8 GB RAM systems is the minimum configuration required for the server or for Node.

Deliverables

BASED DB (Manuals are covered in the Database)

IETM VIEWER Software

User Manual and Installation Manual

Standards — compliance

Costing of IETM: (Interactive Electronic Technical Manual)

Level of IETM, is it Level 3 or Level 4

Cost will be based on the number of pages that are to be converted

The vendor calculates the cost per page. And a fixed cost of IETM viewer software

If you want to create IETM by yourself self then you also need to buy IETM authoring software.

What are these Levels?

Level — 1 is any PDF file

Level — 2 is a PDF file with hyperlinks from the table of contents to the body etc.

Level — 3 is an HTML application. More hyperlinks, simple search, a content tree having log a screen with a hardcoded username and password and supplied in the format of EXE so that Windows can easily open

Level — 4 is Software plus Content/manuals converted as Database

Regarding Level — 5, rest assured, till 2028 it will be Level — 4 only. As of now, there is nothing practically called Level — 5. Few are calling virtual reality and Augmented reality and Artificial intelligence Level — 5.

Pulling data from many user inputs and analyzing and giving results are done in Level — 5. IETM software cannot pull the data from various real-time points as No OEM will give the real-time information to third-party software directly. Yes, if the information is available offline, then that information can be imported into IETM and can be used as a reference.

EED-S-048, DME 452, and NCD 1470, are purely standards defined by the Navy guiding OEMs to follow these guidelines while making documentation. These are purely technical stuff, and only Defence scientists or technical teams of OEMs who were involved in the development of equipment/devices can prepare. They need domain expertise.

Code and Pixels Interactive Technologies Private Limited (CNP) is an IT service provider based in Hyderabad (India). We provide end-to-end eLearning solutions and IETM development (INDIAN STANDARD IETM JSG 0852:2001, LEVELS 3,4,5 and European Aviation Standard IETM Level4 ), specialized in innovative use of technology.

Code and Pixels Interactive Technologies Private Limited (CNP) is an IT service provider based in Hyderabad (India). We provide end-to-end eLearning solutions and IETM development (INDIAN STANDARD IETM JSG 0852:2001, LEVELS 3,4,5 and European Aviation Standard IETM Level4 ), specialized in innovative use of technology.

2 types of individuals will use IETM software. Users and Administrator.

Let’s take a scenario where you (OEM) delivered one engine to some Shipyard.

Basic Purpose of IETM:

The basic purpose of IETM is for easy and quick access to the content. When an issue arises, the user should be able to reach that point in a few clicks. Using various features of IETM, especially search, users can reach the desired place in a single click.

Users will access the IETM software through the workstations provided to them when the issue arises.

IETM User Login:

Using these credentials, the user will access the IETM.

Based on user credentials, i.e. operator or maintainer, the related content will be displayed to the user.

It means the Operator can access all the topics related to engine operations and the Maintainer can see all the topics related to the maintainer.

In a general scenario, all the topics will be made available to both users. Because, the purpose of IETM is to refer when an issue arises, hence, restrict access to documents may not be a good idea.

Administrator Login: (IETM)

Their reporting head or some senior will act like an Administrator, who creates user names and passwords and shares them with the users. They are called Administrators.

Administrators can see all the topics i.e. topics related to Maintainer and Operator.

Whatever features are available to the User will also be available to the Administrator. Administrators can also use IETM like a user.

Apart from that, the administrator has additional features than the user.

They are, Administrators can create, edit, and delete users. All the user’s activity can also be viewed by the administrator. Admin can also see the annotations of users and feedback shared with an administrator. Other features like creating hotspots, Search index creations, print/Report creating etc In short, as the name indicates, the Administrator is the person who administrates IETM software at the user premises.

Super Admin or Authoring Tool:

Only User and Administrator Logins are given to end users i.e. Navy, Army, IAF.

Super Admin will be maintained by OEM only, because OEM is the ultimate owner of the equipment and IETM documentation.

Super Admin is not a Deliverable to the user. OEMs use this software to make IETM in-house.

The authoring tool or Super Admin is software that is used to build IETM. Using Super Admin Log-in Credentials, OEM can build IETM or update IETM.

Article written by

G. Gopi Krishna Code and Pixels IETM R&D team