P&P: RE: Issue classification

["West, Matthew R SITI-ITPSIE" <matthew.west@shell.com>]

Dear Julian,

Well spotted. That has also been pointed out to me offlist,
and an appropriate correction has been made for the next version.

But apart from that, you will have seen that Jim is questioning
the need for procedures at all. Where do you stand on the principle
of adopting some procedures around quality improvement through
issue raising and resolution?


Matthew West
Principal Consultant
Shell Information Technology International Limited
Shell Centre, London SE1 7NA, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 20 7934 4490 Mobile: +44 7796 336538
Email: matthew.west@shell.com
Internet: http://www.shell.com
http://www.matthew-west.org.uk


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Fowler, J PDT-ALT 
> Sent: 30 December 2003 10:43
> To: suo-policies@ieee.org
> Subject: P&P: Issue classification
> 
> 
> 
> Matthew's draft document classifies Major and Minor technical issues 
> as follows:
> 
> Minor Technical: A defect that is technical in nature, but is easy to 
> fix. Examples include errors in construction of formal language 
> statements.  
> 
> Major Technical: A defect where the scale and impact of the defect 
> may require significant thought and work. Examples include axioms 
> stated in such a way that they do not have the intended effect, and 
> missing material.  
> 
> I disagree with the distinction here based on the scale and impact of 
> the correction(s) needed to address the issue (if for no other reason 
> than practical experience that reviewers will not necessarily have a 
> correct grasp of the scale of changes necessary to fix "their" 
> issue).  Rather, I suggest that the distinction is based on the 
> impact on the potential implementors and users of the standard.   
> 
> On that basis, a Major Technical issue is one that, without 
> resolution, would either prevent implementation and use of the 
> standard, or present significant technical and/or economic barriers 
> to implementation of the standard.
> 
> Similarly, a Minor Technical issue is one that, without resolution, 
> would not prevent or prove a significant barrier to implementation or 
> use, but whose resolution would make standard easier and/or cheaper 
> to implement and use.
> 
> regards
> Julian
> 
> -- 
> Julian Fowler, PDT Solutions
> Telephone: +44 15242 63389 Mobile: +44 7764 770511
> Fax: +44 870 052 3414 Email: jfowler@pdtsolutions.co.uk
> http://www.pdtsolutions.co.uk
> 
> 
>