You just won a defence contract. You open the SOTR (Statement of Technical Requirements) and see this line:

"The OEM shall deliver Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM) Level 4 compliant with JSG 0852:2019 along with the equipment."

You call an IETM vendor. They say: "Great, just send us the inputs and we'll get started."

Then the real question hits:

What exactly are the inputs required for IETM development?

What documents does the vendor need, in what format and by when?

This is one of the most common questions we hear at Code and Pixels after 75+ IETM projects delivered to the Indian Army, Navy, Air Force, DRDO, BDL, BEL, ECIL, HSL, Many shipyards and drone manufacturer and private defense OEMs across India. Getting the right inputs to your vendor in the right format, is where IETM projects either run on schedule or slip by months.

This article gives you a complete, practical checklist of everything your IETM vendor needs from you, why each item matters, what format it should be in and what happens when something is missing or wrong.

What Does an IETM Vendor Actually Do with Your Inputs?

Before the checklist, you need to understand why the vendor needs documents in a specific way because this changes how you prepare them.

An IETM Level 4 is not a document. It is a web-based software application built on a relational database (SQL/MariaDB). Your vendor takes every manual, drawing, image and video you provide and rebuilds them from scratch inside a structured database using an authoring tool. The IETM Viewer software then reads that database and presents it interactively to the end user (Army, Navy, or IAF personnel).

This means your vendor is not simply importing a PDF. They are hand building your entire documentation set inside a database creating the table of contents hierarchy, hyperlinks between topics, hotspots on drawings, cross-references between manuals, user role filters and the global search index. Everything from scratch.

One poorly formatted document or one missing manual can stall the entire development. That is why the inputs you provide and how you provide them directly determines how fast and how smoothly your IETM gets built and accepted.

The Complete IETM Inputs Checklist:

1. Technical Manuals and Documentation (The Core Input)

This is the most critical category.

Without approved, complete and editable manuals, your IETM vendor cannot begin work. These are the documents that become the actual content of your IETM database.

Documents to provide:

• User Handbook (UHB) / Operator Manual — how end users operate the equipment. Mandatory for every IETM project.
• Technical Manual (TM) / Service Manual — detailed technical description of systems and subsystems.
• Maintenance Manual — scheduled maintenance, corrective maintenance and servicing procedures.
• Illustrated Parts Catalogue (IPC) / Illustrated Spare Parts List (ISPL) — all spare parts with part numbers, quantities and illustrations.
• A Manufacturer's Recommended List of Spares (MRLS) is a specialized inventory strategy for 2nd and 3rd year operations, designed to ensure equipment uptime after the initial warranty period. It typically includes critical components (bearings, seals), high-wear items (filters, belts) and high value strategic components tailored to specific equipment. Installation Manual / Diagnostics and Installation (DIM) installation, commissioning and diagnostic procedures.
• Troubleshooting Manual — fault codes, symptoms, probable causes and corrective actions.
• Man-Machine Interface (MMI) Manual — if the equipment has a display panel, software interface or HMI screen.
• Initial Stocking Guide (ISG) / Maintenance Scale (MS) — if applicable to your system.
• Safety Instructions and Precautions — warnings, cautions and notes integrated throughout the IETM.

The single most important rule:

Every manual submitted must be the final approved version, reviewed and signed off by the relevant authority (DGQC, MAG, or your internal technical approver). Drafts cause rework. If a document changes after IETM development starts, every page built from it has to be rebuilt.

Format requirements:

• Editable MS Word (.docx) is the best format, always share source files, not just PDFs.
• If submitting PDFs, they must be text-selectable and not scanned images.
• Scanned image PDFs (raster PDFs) are just pictures of pages. They cannot be converted to an IETM database directly and require additional OCR processing, which adds time and introduces errors.
• Files must be unlocked, no password protection, no copy restrictions.