This European Standard specifies general guidelines for: the technical documentation to be supplied with an item, at the latest before it is ready to be put into service, in order to support its maintenance, see Clause 5. the documentation of information to be established within the operational phase of an item, in order to support the maintenance requirements, see Annex A. It is mainly addressed to designers, manufacturers, technical writers and suppliers of documentation. This standard does not include documents related to training and competences of users, operators and maintenance staff. This standard may not be applicable to the documentation for the maintenance of software only.