documentcentric

Document-centric refers to a design and management paradigm in which documents are the primary unit of content and control. In a document-centric system, information is organized around documents and their lifecycles rather than around data records, pages, or UI components. Documents carry metadata, version history, access permissions, and relationships to other documents, enabling structured retrieval, auditing, and reuse. The term is often contrasted with data-centric or page-centric approaches.

Core features typically include a document model with metadata schemas, version control and check-in/check-out, lifecycle workflows, access control, and full-text search. Support for document formats (such as text, PDF, word processing formats) and the ability to link, annotate, or compose documents from components are common. Interoperability with external systems via APIs and import/export, records management, and retention policies are also important.

Document-centric systems are widely used in enterprise content management, regulated industries, legal and contract management, engineering documentation, and digital libraries. The approach promotes traceability, auditability, compliance, and a single source of truth by preserving provenance and change history. It can improve collaboration and consistency across teams but may introduce complexity in metadata management and performance considerations for large document stores.

In practice, document-centric architectures are often part of broader ECM or DAM platforms, and they interact with search, workflow, records management, and collaboration tools. They align with standards for metadata and interoperability and are selected to meet requirements for retention, regulatory compliance, and long-term preservation.