Hardware documentation best practices to foster open innovation

Open source hardware (OSH) transfers the open source idea from software to physical products. Its development hinges on the collaboration of engineers distributed in time and space, and faces similar hurdles as open source software development: accessibility to a well-structured and reusable documentation is key. After analysing best practices in hardware documentation in academia and industry, guidelines from free/open source software, open science, responsible research and innovation, data management and design theory, we created a flexible framework for open source hardware documentation. In the form of a template and a guide, it evolves from ideation towards industrially produced hardware. Developed to be used in public projects documented on Git forges (GitHub, GitLab), it can be adopted in closed source project, as its main goal is to break silos and empower diverse contributors, facilitating collaboration across the product lifecycle. Open source hardware (OSH) transfers the open source idea from software to physical products. Its creation hinges on the collaboration of developers distributed in time and space, and faces similar hurdles as free/open source software development: accessibility to a well-structured and reusable documentation is key. After analysing best practices for its documentation in academia and industry, guidelines from FOSS, open science, responsible research and innovation, data management and design theory, we derived a flexible framework for OSH documentation. In the form of a template and a guide, it evolves from ideation towards industrially produced hardware. Developed to be used in public projects documented on Git forges (GitHub, GitLab), it can be adopted in closed source project, as its main goal is to break silos and empower diverse contributors, facilitating collaboration across the product lifecycle. Best Practices für die Hardware-Dokumentation zur Förderung von offener Innovation Open-Source-Hardware (OSH) überträgt die Open-Source-Idee von Software auf physische Produkte. Ihre Entstehung hängt von der Zusammenarbeit zeitlich und räumlich entfernter Entwickler ab und steht vor ähnlichen Hürden wie die freie/quelloffene Software (FOSS): Der Zugang zu gut strukturierter, wiederverwertbarer Dokumentation ist entscheidend. Im Zuge der Analyse von Best Practices ihrer Dokumentation in Forschung und Industrie, Leitfäden für FOSS, Open Science, Responsible Research & Innovation, Datenmanagement und Designtheorie haben wir ein flexibles Rahmenwerk für die OSH-Dokumentation abgeleitet. In Form einer Struktur und eines Leitfadens reicht es von der Idee zum industriell produzierten Produkt. Es wurde für offene Projekte auf Git-Forges z.B. GitHub konzipiert, kann aber auch in geschlossenen Projekten eingesetzt werden, da es das Hauptziel ist, Silos aufzubrechen und Zusammenarbeit entlang des Produktlebenszyklus zu fördern.