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III. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
V. CS SAB Awards Process (under revision)
VII. Your Standards Work Begins
This handbook is intended to provide a general orientation for new standards development leaders by helping them to understand policies and to provide information for carrying out their roles and responsibilities.
The IEEE Computer Society is the largest association for computer professionals in the world. With almost 85,000 members, the society offers a comprehensive program of publications, meetings, and technical and educational activities that foster an active exchange of information, ideas, and innovation. The society services its members from its headquarters in Washington, DC and offices in Los Alamitos, California and Tokyo. Tracing its origins to 1946, the Computer Society is the largest of the technical societies of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE).
Welcome to the IEEE Computer Society's Standards Activities. This Orientation Handbook provides a summary of responsibilities and information for new persons in leadership positions.
This handbook is available to all officers of standards activities in the Computer Society to provide the necessary reference documents to assist leadership in doing their job properly. Each standards leader, Sponsor and Working Group (WG) chair, is responsible for reviewing the materials and complying with the guidelines, policies and procedures contained therein.
The Computer Society Headquarters office will direct you to the proper contacts to minimize your efforts. The Computer Society office is located at 2001 L Street, N.W., Suite 700, Washington, DC 20036-1049, Ph: +1-202-371-0101, Fax: +1-202-728-9614.
The IEEE Standards office can provide assistance and information related to the standards development process. IEEE Standards Activities, 445 Hoes Lane, P.O. Box 1331, Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331, Ph: +1-732-562-3800, Fax: +1-732-562-1571.
Existing Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) can provide a number of services to benefit a new group. Alignment with an SDO can provide a venue for the new group giving access to meeting facilities, meeting services, group rates, mailing lists, etc. This allows organizers of the new group to concentrate on the development process itself. The Computer Society's Volunteer Services Department plans meetings and conferences, and can assist with these services . An existing SDO can also provide assistance with ongoing activities such as meeting planning, document and information distribution, and format assistance for PARs, publishing, and advancement to international status. Another of the desired features of working through an SDO (such as the IEEE) is the broadness of interest in the standard in both development and potential use. Existing SDOs can cast a wide net to solicit interest in a new standard. Both developers and users will add ideas that lead to a greater acceptance and use.
The IEEE Standards Board has overall responsibility for all standards development and approval for which the IEEE is ultimately responsible, and sole responsibility for appointment to and participation in, and cooperations with, other organizations on all standards matters. The Board is responsible on an Institute-wide basis for matters regarding units and standards in the fields of electrical engineering, electronics, radio, and the allied branches of engineering or related arts and sciences. The Board ensures that IEEE standards represent an agreement of interests concerned with and affected by these standards. The Board also ensures that the proper procedures have been followed in developing the standards. The Board delegates these responsibilities to RevCom and NesCom with final approval from the IEEE Standards Board.
The IEEE Computer Society (CS) is a member society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and operates under the umbrella of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as one of several accredited standards developing organizations. As articulated in the IEEE Computer Society's Constitution:
Our purpose is achieved through a broad range of activities including publications, conferences, tutorials, technical activities, education and standards. The Computer Society Policies & Procedures Manual cites the objectives of the society's standards activities:
To facilitate the initiation, development, promulgation, international adoption and maintenance of computer and computer related standards.
To provide a forum professionals to develop needed, technically excellent standards to serve world wide providers, users and implementors of information technology.
The organization of standards activities includes the Computer Society, the Standards Activities Board, Standards Coordinating Committee, Sponsors, and working group Chairs.
The Standards Activities Board (SAB) is the body of the Computer Society responsible for standards activities, and is made up of standards sponsors, also called Committee Chairs. The SAB is chaired by the Vice President for Standards. SAB recommends to the Computer Society Board of Governors all policies and practices with respect to standards; monitors standards activities to assure conformance to approved policies and procedures; and establishes or dissolves CS chartered standards sponsors, setting the scope of each sponsor's charter. SAB provides a forum for sharing and assessing information related to the operation of sponsors and for voting on issues, policies and procedures. SAB provides leadership and support for all IEEE Computer Society related standards activities, and therefore plays a vital role in the Society and the IEEE. The standards program continues to be a vibrant and growing activity, with many thousands of participants, and the society is recognized as a major player within the global standards community.
The Standards Coordinating Committee (SCC) is made up of SAB members plus all working group chairs. The SCC may act as Sponsor when the scope of a standards activity is too broad for one Sponsor.
The IEEE standards development process includes two volunteer groups. The first is a sponsor, who supervises all phases of the development and maintenance of a standard through coordinating the formation of working groups for the preparation of new standards, or revision of existing standards. The second actually works to develop standards, such as an SCC, working group or study group, which is responsible to the sponsor. All sponsors are a part of the Executive Committee of the Computer Society Standards Activities Board, directly responsible for making and influencing Computer Society policy. A sponsor and its members are called the Standards Committee.
A sponsor is a group of individuals who have a professed interest in the development of a standard, either by direct participation or by the process of review, in technological areas that fall under the scope of interest to the Computer Society. All standards development is based on projects approved by the IEEE Standards Board, and the project is the responsibility of the sponsor from inception through to completion. A Sponsor has three primary functions:
The Computer Society has over 200 working groups developing draft standards, under the auspices of the following sponsors:
Working Groups (WGs) are the actual bodies that meet to work on a draft standard. The Chair of the WG is the contact for its activity, and is responsible for reporting to the Sponsor at periods defined by the Sponsor, and submitting copies of minutes and other materials to the Sponsor. The WG chair is appointed by the Sponsor for the period of time to produce the standard, or until replaced by the Sponsor, or until the WG is dissolved. Sponsors may also have requirements for chairs to be elected or affirmed by the WG membership. The chair is responsible for submitting a copy of all updated draft documents to the Sponsor, the Computer Society, and the IEEE. The authority to create, merge, or dissolve WGs lies with the Sponsor. A WG Chair should be a member of the Computer Society and have the support of his/her institution. A Working Group has the following primary functions:
Standards Development
Administration
Membership in WGs is open to all interested parties. The goal is to promote a broad consensus on each standard. It is important to note that WG members must be members of the IEEE Standards Association to participate in the balloting of a draft standard.
The International Program Fee (IPF) is applicable only if the working group is involved or intends to be involved with ISO/IEC JTC1. The following information is for understanding the purpose, extent, and means for administering the JTC-1 International Program Fee.
2. Purpose: The IPF is being administered to facilitate underwriting part of the cost of ANSI's Secretariat staff where that staff is supporting JTC-1 IT programs. Specifically, these programs cover: JTC-1 Secretariat, SC-6 Data Communications, SC-11 Media, SC-18 Text & Office Systems, SC-21 OSI.
3. Administration: Each SDO has been asked to collect the IPF on behalf of ANSI on an annual basis. It is relatively unusual to collect service fees other than to cover the direct expenses of a particular standards development committee (e.g., meeting room expenses, document duplication, coffee breaks). It is suggested that rather than pay a single annual amount for the IPF, the fee be split evenly among the number of Plenary meetings a particular committee holds (e.g., P1003 collect 25% of the annual IPF at each of four meetings, P802 collect 33 1/3% of the annual IPF at each of three meetings). Each committee is to determine the exact method and manner of fee collection. Payment of the fees should be made to the IEEE and sent to the IEEE Standards Office in Piscataway, New Jersey (Attn: Karen DeChino), which will forward the collected amount to ANSI.
4. Planning Assistance: Several individuals are familiar with the underlying IPF needs and related administration processes and may be able to assist those standards development committees now undertaking the IPF program. Talk to the sponsor, Vice President of Standards, or appointed International Chair of the Standards Activities Board.
Development of standards in the IEEE is governed by various sets of policies and procedures. At the very highest level are the documents that govern the IEEE:
Those documents delegate the responsibility for standards activities to the IEEE Standards Association. The IEEE-SA is governed by a Board of Governors operating under procedures described by:
To implement these responsibilities, the IEEE-SA Standards Board meets four times a year. Its operations are governed by:
The IEEE-SA and the Standards Board can be contacted through their designated staff liaisons. A complete list of IEEE standards staff is compiled in the staff directory.
The Standards Board has developed the IEEE Standards Style Manual to explain the required format and content of an IEEE standard. The IEEE Standards Companion provides an informal and readable overview of the entire IEEE standards development process.
The existing collection of IEEE standards can be viewed in the IEEE product catalog.
The IEEE Standards Kit, sent to new working group chairs, contains copies of many of these documents. All of the documents can be accessed at the IEEE Standards Website.
The official reporter, usually the Working Group Chair, of an IEEE standards project is required to satisfy the appropriate membership requirements. Typically, those who ballot on the standard must also be members. (There are provisions for non-member "expert" balloters and observers; their votes do not "count" in the numerical requirements for consensus although their comments are often influential.)
The membership requirements are to (1) be a member of the IEEE or an affiliate of one of its constituent societies, like the Computer Society, and (2) be a member of the IEEE Standards Association. Membership information can be obtained as follows:
A Project Authorization Request (PAR) is needed to initiate or change a standard. The PAR is sponsored by one of the many standards sponsors that exist under the auspices of the Standards Activity Board (SAB) of the IEEE Computer Society. All Computer Society PARs must be copied to the reflector par@computer.org in order to provide information about your project to the Computer Society SAB and other interested persons.
The PAR form is available as a part of the IEEE Working Guide for Submittal of Proposed Standards. Typically, the PAR is developed by the working group and forwarded to the sponsor for submission to the New Standards Committee (NesCom) of the Standards Board. After consideration by Nescom, the PAR is ultimately forwarded to the Standards Board for final approval. Nescom and the Standards Board meet four times a year and are made up of volunteers who are provided with very little time to review dozens of submissions. This leads to a great deal of reliance on form. Care must be taken to complete the PAR form exactly in accordance with the instructions. Virtually any deviation from the proper form will lead to a return of the PAR to its originator and a delay of three months until the next meeting.
When completing a PAR form, it is critical that the entries be well thought out. When the completed draft standard comes up for approval and acceptance, it will be compared with the original PAR. The title should match the title of the standard. The written draft standard should match scope and purpose as stated in the PAR. Coordination with specific groups (i.e. SCC 10, SCC 14, and IEEE Staff Editorial Review) is required and additional groups should be included depending on the nature of the standard. Care should be taken to avoid unnecessary coordination since documentation of such coordination will be required when the standard is submitted for approval.
The IEEE standards staff is prepared to accept standards in a variety of word-processor formats. The standard must conform, though, to the requirements of the IEEE Style Manual. Word processing templates for IEEE Standards are available by contacting an IEEE Standards Project Editor.
If it is necessary for another person to assume the role of Official Reporter, the Standards Board must be notified. A form is available for this purpose.
When the drafting and balloting of a proposed standard are completed, the final draft must be submitted to the Review Committee (RevCom) of the IEEE Standards Board. (Some sponsors have additional requirements, though.) RevCom ensures that the draft is in proper format and that procedural requirements for consensus have been followed. Based on upon RevCom's recommendation, the Standards Board approves the standard for publication.
RevCom meets four times a year. A typical meeting may involve the review of dozens of submissions, so it is important that all submission requirements are fulfilled. These requirements are summarized in the Guide for Submittal of Proposed Standard.
Policies and Procedures: Computer Society Standards Activities Board
