Abbreviations

Q. Hello, another question from New Zealand. I am unsure as to the rules for spelling out what abbreviations stand for. In the passage I am proofreading, we refer to the DSD and the BPD, which stand for the design strategy document and the business process document, respectively. Am I right in thinking these should be lowercase when written in full?

A. Yes, that’s right. There is no need to uppercase common noun phrases simply because they can be represented by an acronym or initialism.