The impact of ISO/TC 37 standards on technical communication

Rather than just profiting from digitalization efforts such as the implementation and improvement of automated content delivery processes, technical communication itself currently has the opportunity of becoming a major driver in digitalization. The essence of technical communicators’ work is to create representations of products under the aspect of product use. In order to convey how a product functions and how it shall be used, they build concepts that reflect its structure and the structure of the domain to which it belongs. These concepts and their interrelations represent the underlying architecture of information that is rendered into ‘technical documentation’ in the course of the information development process which parallels the product development process. To harmonize concepts for information on products to be launched and in its proper domain, as well as to ensure interoperability between digital resources, technical communication relies on a range of standards created within and published by ISO Technical Committee 37, Language and Terminology (ISO/TC 37).