Terminology Control

(Available in all extension stages of IQ-Software)

For optimal information reuse ("lessons learned"), the wording for the same things must be the same. If one person calls a leakage an "elusion" and another team member calls it "ooziness", those two will have a hard time when they try to learn from each other. APIS IQ-Software offers many solutions to cope with such a problem.

Terminology Control when Entering Data

This is supported by catalogs (of functions, failures, actions...) that can be used when entering data in the input collector.

Figure 1 - Input collector for functions via structure editor

The bottom window of the input collector shows all function texts, failure texts that have been entered before. The user can search this list (including incremental search with wild cards) and reuse suitable entries.

Figure 2 - Similarity search

In addition, a similarity search can be turned on to find entries with different spelling.

Figure 3 - Input collector for failures via structure editor

These catalogs are available for functions, failures, preventive actions, and detection actions.

Figure 4 - Input collector for preventive actions via forms editor

External Catalogs

There are various ways to include existing catalogs from text files or from a centralized server (CARM-Service Catalogs).

Figure 5 - Input collector for product characteristics with catalog menu opened

Administration of Terminology

This is done in the Editor for Terminology and Translation. Changes in this editor are automatically reflected in all documents which use the changed term(s). When different words have been used for the same function/failure/action, these phrases can be merged into one identical phrase which will then show up wherever the other differing phrases were used. This editor is also the tool for maintaining translations of the data to different languages (including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean).

Figure 6 - Terminology control with menu

Big lists of phrases can be categorized for ease of use. These categories can also be used in the input collectors.

Figure 7 - Function catalog with categories

Inheritance

If new failures are defined for a reused function, the system asks the user if these new failures should also be copied over to the other occurrences of the reused function. This is called "inheritance".

Figure 8 - Inheritance step 1

Figure 9 - Inheritance step 2