Most DMSes utilize a "check-in/check-out" process, meaning that only one person can work the document. Others can work on "copies," but there is no way to sync their changes back into the main document stored in the DMS.
Exactly. It means incompatible changes have to be merged manually later. It causes problems with large reports where, for example, an electrical engineer may be editing one section and a civil engineer another, but only one can have the document checked out at a time. It's possible to break large reports up into many small section reports, but that's a workaround to the real issue.
It also means that when someone checks a file out and then goes home for the weekend without checking it back in no one can update the file in the DMS without administrator support.
It also means that when someone checks a file out and then goes home for the weekend without checking it back in no one can update the file in the DMS without administrator support.