RUŌOD Lab

Level 12 · Professional Portfolio and Capstone

Technical Documentation: Study Guide

Read our guide to standardizing formula documents, then assemble the capstone file so that a stranger could find, remake and check anything within minutes.

Professional 15 min study By the RUŌOD Lab team Updated

In short

Good formula documentation uses one consistent format for materials, units, versions and dates, so anyone can tell what a formula is and how to make it. The guide sets out a standard. Your capstone has produced a lot of paper by now, and this exercise turns it into a single file that someone other than you can use.

What you will learn

  • Organize a complete formula file
  • Test the file with a stranger's task

Before this lesson: Regulatory Review for the Capstone

What to look for as you read

  • How materials, dilutions and units should be named.
  • What belongs in the master record, and what belongs in a batch record.
  • How to keep an archive safe from loss.

Practical exercise: Assemble the capstone file

About 90 minutes · You will have: a complete capstone file with an index, tested by someone else

  1. Assemble these in one file: status note, final formula, version log, evidence file, material cards, evaluation plan and results, costing, review, and any batch record.
  2. Write an index listing each one, with its version, date and location.
  3. Back the file up, and confirm that you can open the backup.
  4. Give someone these three tasks: find the exact active share of one material, find which version changed the base, and find what is still unverified. Time them.
  5. Fix whatever slowed them down.

You have done this well if all three tasks can be done in minutes without your help. If the formula is confidential, use a person you trust or replace the numbers in a copy.

Knowledge check

1. What is the best test of a formula file?
Show the answer

A stranger can find what they need within minutes. Real use finds what is missing.

2. Why state units and basis in a formula?
Show the answer

'5' could mean grams, percent or parts, of supplied or active material. Ambiguity here produces wrong batches.

3. Which belongs in a file index?
Show the answer

Each document, its version, date and location. The index makes it possible to check for gaps.

Further reading and materials

Written and reviewed by the RUŌOD Lab team. This is general education, not legal, regulatory, medical or safety advice. Example dilutions and exercises are for learning, are not validated products, and have not been safety-assessed. Completing a lesson confers no qualification. How we check these lessons.