2.4 The Structure as the “ Backbone ” of the Technical Report
2.4.5 General Structure Patterns for Technical Reports
In the following, we show you structure patterns for often written types of Technical Reports, which have been successfully used in practice. If you use such a structure pattern, you do not need to create a 4-point- and 10-point-structure.
At first we provide a structure pattern for a rough design description in which after analyzing the sub functions and the design solutions of the sub functions several concept variants are defined. These will then be evaluated according to the VDI guidelines for design methodology VDI 2222 and 2225 (see also Sect.3.3.2).
Structure pattern of a rough design description—several concept variants 1 Starting situation
2 Task
2:1 Task definition 2:2 List of requirements 3 Function analysis
3:1 Formulating the overall function 3:2 Subdivision into sub functions 3:3 Morphological box
3:4 Definition of the concept variants
3:5 Technical evaluation of the concept variants 3:6 Economical evaluation of the concept variants
3:7 Selection of the most useful concept variant with the s-diagram 4 Design
4:1 Design description 4:2 Computation of loads
5 Summary and conclusions 6 References
A Bill of materials
B Manufacturer documents
If you do not add manufacturer documents, just use the appendix“A Bill of materials”. If you want to add printouts or plots or photocopies of technical drawings in reduced size, you can structure the appendices as follows: A Bill of materials, B Assembly drawing, C Component drawings, D Manufacturer documents.
Bill of Materials in the Technical Report and in the set of drawings
The bill of materials is actually not a part of the report, but it belongs to the set of drawings. Since the drawings are transported in drawing rolls, it has proven to be prac- tical, to add the bill of materials twice to the Technical Report: one copy of the bill of materials is added as an appendix of the bound Technical Report and the other is added to the set of drawings in the drawing roll. If during a presentation drawings arefixed to the walls of the meeting room, the (enlarged!) bill of materials can also be hung up at the wall.
Assembly drawing in the Technical Report and in the set of drawings
Please decide, whether you want to add a photocopy of the assembly drawing in reduced size to your Technical Report. It can either be added to an appendix (directly behind the bill of materials) or used in a text chapter (preferably in the chapter“Design description”).
If the photocopy of the assembly drawing in reduced size is bound into your Technical Report, the parts can be referred to in the design description with their names and in addition with their position numbers, e.g. “Handle (23)”. However, when the first part name with added position number occurs in the text of the design description, you should explain that the number is a position number and refers to the assembly drawing and the bill of materials.
Now we want to look at the structure patterns again. In the following, you willfind a structure pattern for a rough design description where the most useful design solutions of the sub functions are combined to only one concept variant (see also Sect.3.3.2).
Structure pattern of a rough design description—one concept variant 1 Introduction
2 Task
2:1 Task definition 2:2 List of requirements 3 Function analysis
3:1 Formulating the overall function 3:2 Subdivision into sub functions 3:3 Morphological box
3:4 Verbal evaluation of the design alternatives for the sub functions 3:5 Description of the concept variant
4 Design
4:1 Design description 4:2 Computation of loads 5 Summary and conclusions 6 References
A Bill of materials
B Manufacturer documents.
Now we want to give you a structure pattern for projects dealing with laboratory experiments or other experimental works. First, there is an important rule:
▸ Laboratory experiments must always be documented“reproducible”! Provide so much information, that someone else will measure the same values orfind out the same test results, if he/she executes the experiments exactly under the described conditions.
Therefore, the following information may never be left out:
– testing machine, device, or rig with manufacturer, type number and/or name, inventory number etc.
– all parameters set or selected at the machine, device or rig
– all measuring instruments, always with manufacturer, type number and/or name, inventory number, set or selected parameters etc.
– tested specimens with all required data according to the appertaining standard, regu- lation or guideline (ISO, EN, DIN or other), taken samples
– in experiments which are not standardized similar data regarding specimen shape, experiment parameters, temperatures, physical/chemical properties etc.
– all measured values or test results with all parameters
– used evaluation formulas with complete bibliographical data of used references.
Structure pattern of an experimental work 1 Target and scope of the test 2 Theoretical basics
3 The laboratory experiment/test 3:1 Testing rig design
3:1:1 Testing machine, plant, rig or device 3:1:2 Used measuring instruments
3:2 Test preparations
3:2:1 Specimen preparations
3:2:2 Setup of the starting conditions
3:3 Test execution
3:3:1 Execution of the preparation tests 3:3:2 Execution of the main tests 3:4 Test results
3:5 Test evaluation
3:6 Estimation of measurementflaws
4 Critical discussion of the laboratory experiments/tests 5 Conclusions
6 References
A Measurement protocols of the preparation tests B Measurement protocols of the main tests.
The next example structure pattern is for manuals and instructions for the usage of complex technical products. These documents should be written by technical writers.
Manuals and instructions for use are structured according to different schemes. They can be subdivided and numbered according to ISO 2145, but they can as well have document part headings without document part numbers. To provide more uniformity here, EN 82079“Creation of instructions; Structure, contents and presentation”has been published.
Among other information this standard describes, which information shall be given in which sequence in instruction manuals. Other definitions used in the following structure pattern are derived from DIN 31051“Grundlagen der Instandhaltung (Basics of mainte- nance)”, and VDI guideline 4500 “Technische Dokumentation (Technical documenta- tion)”. The text in manuals shall be understandable for technical laymen. The vendor of the products bears the risk of product liability.
The following structure pattern for manuals and instructions for use differs from the other structure patterns, because the individual document part headings are partially not as detailed as in the other structure patterns. This was done intentionally, because the described technical products can have very different levels of complexity and very dif- ferent philosophies of use. Therefore, look at this last structure pattern only as an ori- entation and adopt it to your described technical product. The information can either be presented according to the structure and logic of the product (product-oriented) or according to the sequence and logic of work steps during product usage (task-oriented).
Structure pattern for manuals and instructions for use 1 Before operating the machine/device
1:1 Important information about the machine/device
(Definition/description of the machine/device, description of the benefits, safety notes and warnings, overview of the functions)
1:2 Supplied/delivered scope and optional parts
1:3 Usage of the machine/device (Rules and regulations,
safety notes and warnings, intended usage, unintended usage, documentation provided by third parties)
1:4 Transportation of the machine/device 1:5 Requirements regarding the site
1:6 Unwrapping, assembling, mounting and setup of the machine/device 1:7 Connection of the machine/device to supply and disposal networks
(water, electricity, computer network etc.) and operation test 2 Operation and usage of the machine/device
2:1 Initiation of the machine/device
2:2 Functions of the machine/device during normal operation, safety notes and warnings
2:3 Refilling consumptive materials 2:4 Cleaning the machine/device
2:5 Preventive maintenance (maintenance, inspections) 2:6 Disposal of supporting and operating materials 2:7 Shutting-down the machine/device
3 After operating the machine/device
3:1 Finding the cause of disorder and resolving it
3:2 Ordering spare parts, wear and tear parts and electric plans 3:3 Disassembling the machine/device
3:4 Disposal and recycling of the machine/device (what? where? how?) 4 Appendices
4:1 Possible causes of disorder/Trouble shooting (what shall I do, if…?) 4:2 Spare parts, additional parts (exceeding the supplied/delivered scope) 4:3 Glossary
4:4 Index.
Naturally speaking all structure patterns described in this section can be adopted to the described project, product, topic or task. If the supervisor has published an own structure pattern, it should be used. On the other hand, if you use the structure patterns presented in this book, you will establish a correct logical sequence of thoughts, topics, work steps etc.