PANAMA CITY, Fla. –
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Naval Sea Systems Command’s (NAVSEA) Enterprise-wide S1000D Common Source Database. ATA/ASD-S1000D, also commonly known as S1000D, is an international standard for technical documentation to allow the interchange of data between systems, agencies, and partner organizations without the need to reformat or rework that technical data.
In S1000D’s infancy with NAVSEA the vision was to create an enterprise-wide solution for S1000D and commissioned the Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD) with the development and implementation of a NAVSEA S1000D Common Source Database (CSDB). Once the test bed was successfully completed, the NAVSEA S1000D CSDB was activated on the Naval Logistics Technical Data Server hosting facility at the Philadelphia Detachment of NSWC Carderock Division, which later became NSWC Philadelphia Division (NSWC PD). Through the partnership, all NAVSEA Technical Manual Maintenance Activities had the opportunity to use the NAVSEA S1000D CSDB.
As of May 2018, the database holds over 1.5 million pages of data with over 70,000 illustrations. The technical manuals that contain this data are used across the Navy ashore and aboard every platform. These technical manuals are both in Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETMs) and PDF formats giving Sailors the right information in the most effective format for the system they are maintaining or operating.
Some tenets of the NAVSEA S1000D Database is to reuse data as much as possible to reduce the total cost of ownership, which in turn reduces the logistics footprint creating a culture of affordability. NSWC PCD has ensured that data developed previously continues to be viable as the standards evolve by maintaining the older S1000D versions within the NAVSEA S1000D CSDB output engine, which allows previously tagged data modules to be seamlessly displayed within the same technical manual as newer data modules from revisions. An important tenet for developers of data, NSWC PCD ensured that S1000D data can migrate between both IETMs and PDFs seamlessly to allow developers to produce either format without modifying data.
In addition to improving reuse and repurposing of data, the database provides a common data warehouse reducing the number of servers and infrastructure associated with information systems.
Contractors and government technical writers alike, work inside the NAVSEA S1000D CSDB. Each type of developer is assigned a role and an inbox for the work to be accomplished by them. The workflows are managed by government managers assigning the work to either group. The NAVSEA S1000D CSDB is administered through a partnership between NSWC PCD and NSWC PD in a tiered approach of technical support with NSWC PCD as tier one assisting developers with tagging and database procedures.
NSWC PCD maintains a NMCI mailbox, s1000dimplementation@navy.mil, to assist users with technical support of the database and is the gateway for all tier level support of the NAVSEA S1000D CSDB. NSWC PD provides tier two support for hardware issues, connectivity issues, and administers the data warehouse now located within the Defense Information Systems Agency. Cybersecurity of this controlled unclassified information is maintained through segregated instances of the database ensuring each user only has access to data they are authorized to view. The entire system is secured through the authentication of user security certificates.
The NAVSEA S1000D CSDB continues to mature and grow to meet the warfighter’s needs for the right information at the right time.