Documentation Status Model

Summary

Documentation status reports content readiness independently from implementation status. An implemented feature can have draft documentation, and approved documentation can describe planned or transitional behavior when clearly labeled.

Audience

• Documentation authors, owners, reviewers, approvers, and automation maintainers

Reference Content

Status	Meaning	Allowed use
planned	Scope and ownership are identified; content is not authored	Backlog, gap analysis, impact planning
draft	Content exists but is incomplete or unreviewed	Authoring and evidence collection
review	Required reviewers are actively validating content	Controlled review only
approved	Required reviews passed	Ready for an authorized publication decision
published	Content is released to its intended visibility audience	Active reader guidance
archived	Content is retained but no longer active guidance	Historical and migration reference

Compatibility mapping

The current status field remains required during migration:

• planned → planned
• draft → draft
• in-review → review
• approved → approved or published, depending on actual release state
• archived → archived
• Legacy deprecated describes content transition and should be paired with product implementation_status: deprecated or a visible replacement path; it is not a canonical documentation_status value.

Automation may recommend a transition but must never set approved or published without the authorized human workflow.

Related Articles

• Documentation lifecycle
• Metadata model
• Review model

See Also

• Existing content lifecycle standard

Keywords

• Documentation readiness
• Publication status
• Status compatibility

Revision Information

• Status: Draft
• Last reviewed: 2026-07-15
• Review cycle: Quarterly