[802SEC] New Model for the Maintenanc of Standards--update
Dear EC members,
The Standards Board has voted to eliminate the reaffirmation process and replace it with mandatory revision at least once every 10 years . It will likely go into effect 2012--see the below email thread for details.
Regards,
--Paul
----- Original Message -----
From: d.ringle@ieee.org
To: Paul Nikolich
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 9:37 AM
Subject: Re: Fw: Reaffirmation
Paul,
The recent vote of the SASB was on the proposed P&P changes to remove the reaffirmation/stabilization maintenance options and to extend the active life of standards to 10 years.
Please see the email below my email signature file for what was sent to Sponsors in December on this topic.
Regards,
****************************************************************
David L. Ringle
Manager, IEEE-SA Governance
IEEE Standards Activities Department
445 Hoes Lane
Piscataway, NJ 08854-4141 USA
TEL: +1 732 562 3806
FAX: +1 732 875 0524
d.ringle@ieee.org
****************************************************************
From: David Ringle/STDS/STAFF/US/IEEE
To: std-liaison-reps@IEEE.ORG
Cc: stds-board-comm@IEEE.ORG, Yvette Ho Sang/STDS/STAFF/US/IEEE@IEEE, topp.claire@dorsey.com
Date: 12/15/2010 05:50 PM
Subject: New Model for the Maintenance of IEEE Standards
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: IEEE-SA Standards Sponsors
RE: New Model for the Maintenance of IEEE Standards
For several years now, the IEEE Standards Association's Standards Board (SASB) has dealt with a number of issues/concerns related to maintenance activities, such as:
· Reaffirmation ballots, which are supposed to lead to yes/no decisions, often have technical comments that cannot be resolved, as no changes to documents are allowed; this is a continuing concern in IEEE-SA Standards Board Standards Review Committee (RevCom) reviews of Reaffirmation ballots.
· Revisions PARs are not always initiated to resolve issues raised during Reaffirmation, and this increases risk/exposure to IEEE when we do not adequately address concerns.
· Reaffirmation ballots (and heavy workloads) have led to cursory voting as many voters cast default 'yes' votes without really reviewing the standard(s); this has led to questions on whether the approval percentage for a Reaffirmation should be raised, which would make our procedures more complex.
· There are differing (and strongly held) views on what levels of technical errors/inconsistencies might be allowed in approving a Reaffirmation ballot.
· The desire to gain ballot group input on issues (and Sponsor reaction) before a yes/no Reaffirmation vote has led to proposals for two-stage voting procedures, which would introduce more complexity into our procedures.
· Stabilization (see the definition in SASB OpMan 1.2) is not allowed if: the standard is a 'health or safety standard'; if the technology is 'immature'; if it contains 'significant erroneous information'; etc. - items that require clear decisions from a risk perspective and that have led to much discussion/concern.
In the past year, the Standards Board's Reaffirmation Ad Hoc has considered these issues and is now proposing a resolution that is described in the attached flowcharts and three Bylaws/OpMan documents. We have discussed these revisions with ANSI, and pending their formal review of our final procedural documents, ANSI does not have concern with our path - and we will retain our ANSI accreditation. In addition, the revisions proposed will reduce Sponsor and staff effort, and put focus squarely on the need to actually revise maintained standards.
The key points of this proposal are:
1. 'Reaffirmation' and 'Stabilization' processes are eliminated. Standards are either 'Revised' or 'Withdrawn from active status'.
2. Sponsors have to complete a Revision on a maintained standard every 10 years, as opposed to starting a Reaffirmation every 5 years; the Revision may be as simple as minor reference updates or even just changing the ':yyyy' designation in the title to indicate it has been examined.
3. If Sponsors cannot form ballot groups or otherwise complete their work, staff can initiate an administrative action to make the standard inactive at the 10-year mark.
4. Each year, Sponsors will receive a list of standards under maintenance, with special highlighting of standards that are at or past the 5-year mark to encourage them to start considering Revision PARs. Staff will file the necessary notifications to ANSI to insure that ANSI is aware that we are working to maintain the standard.
5. Sponsors will decide (internally) how they process this list each year and consider whether to either start a Revision PAR or 'do nothing'. If nothing is done (and the 10-year point has not arrived), the standard will simply move forward for reconsideration by the Sponsor in the following year.
6. Transition plans will be developed in early 2011, but it is expected that standards currently under maintenance plans will continue to follow those plans in 2011, and this new process would start in 2012. We expect little to no changes to myBallot and other systems, but education/training will be important. FAQs and similar material will be prepared to support the program.
7. These changes are expected to reduce Sponsor formal workloads through the elimination of Reaffirmation/Stabilization ballots, and insure that when comments on technical flaws are raised it will be simple to update the standard without having to initiate a separate revision process.
Standards Sponsors are invited to review the attached documents. Please note that proposed Policy and Procedure changes are indicated in the Bylaws and OpMans in yellow highlight.
Please send any comments to me by 28 February 2011. Thanks.
Regards,
****************************************************************
David L. Ringle
Manager, IEEE-SA Governance
IEEE Standards Activities Department
445 Hoes Lane
Piscataway, NJ 08854-4141 USA
TEL: +1 732 562 3806
FAX: +1 732 875 0524
d.ringle@ieee.org
****************************************************************
----------
This email is sent from the 802 Executive Committee email reflector. This list is maintained by Listserv.