Many companies consider acquiring a product data management system (PD
MS) to reduce the delays and costs caused by inefficient product data
management. There are, however, considerable differences between the v
arious commercially available PDMSs, starting from the different meani
ngs of basic concepts, such as document or document version. Before ev
aluating various PDMSs and their features, a company should analyze th
e processes in which the PDMS is going to be used. This paper describe
s two common processes: the development and delivery processes of conf
igurable products. To a large extent product data is expressed as docu
ments, and consequently engineering document management is one of the
main functions of a PDMS. The rest of the paper discusses general requ
irements for document management within a PDMS and the particular requ
irements implied by the two process types.