The COMPAS Document Life Cycle

It is important to know that COMPAS documents fall into 2 basic categories: life cycle process-"controlled" and life cycle process-"uncontrolled". The category that a document belongs to is based on the field labeled "Control:" in the Document Detail Window-Control Info section.

If this field is set to "no", document statuses can be changed at will by the document owner or COMPAS librarian.

If the field labeled "Control" is "yes", the document follows a controlled life cycle process that is very useful in meeting ISO standards.

The remainder of this help file describes statuses and state flow for life cycle process-"controlled" documents. Understanding these state flows will help you with baselining your document.

Controlled Document Statuses:

Draft

A draft of the document has been completed and delivered. This status is automatically assigned to the document when it is entered into the system.

Review/Inspect

A technical review or inspection has been scheduled for the document. This status is automatically assigned when the author schedules a review or inspection.

Rework

A technical review was held for the document and the author is correcting the document based on the problems identified at the meetings.

Sign-off

A technical review for this document was held and completed. Results of the review are in the database and have been sent to members of the control team for approval.

Chg_ctl

The control team has officially approved this document for "baselining". All changes to the document must now occur through formal MRs that are entered and managed in COMPAS.

It is important to know that once a controlled document is in the chg_ctl state, changes to the document can only occur if there is an approved MR.