Professional Documents
Culture Documents
standards development process. Working Groups leverage these rules and guidelines and
establish their own individual, organizational, communications and meeting structures, and
govern work process, activities, consensus building, decision making, balloting and even
financial reporting in accordance with SDO rules. To build consensus through democratic means,
participants engage in meetings, draft and review position pieces, create and review
presentations, examine data and engage in active discussion and debate to resolve outstanding
issues.
These activities fuel the gradual definition of each standard, which is compiled into a draft
standard that may undergo multiple revisions. Within the IEEE-SA, once a draft standard has
been finalized, reviewed, and approved by the Working Group, it is submitted to the Sponsor for
Sponsor balloting. Upon successful completion of the Sponsor ballot, the draft is submitted to the
Review Committee (RevCom). The balloted draft is reviewed by RevCom and then submitted to
the Standards Board for approval. After submission, review and acceptance, the approved
standard is published and made available for distribution and purchasing within in a number of
outlets, including through the SDO itself.
It is important to remember that standards are living documents", which may initially be
published and iteratively modified, corrected, adjusted and/or updated based on market
conditions and other factors. At any given point in time, therefore, a standard may be referred to
as having a number of different "status" classifications. Within IEEE, these include:
Approved Standard - The standard is approved and published for public use.
In keeping with the standards development lifecycle, Working Groups may also go through
periodic stages of activity or dormancy. Depending on where a standard is in its lifecycle a
standard may be accompanied by supplemental documents that are produced by its respective
Working Group. These may include errata (which address errors in the standard), amendments
(which modify sections of the standard), corrigenda (which only correct errors or ambiguities in
a standard), handbooks, tutorials and other related materials. Supplemental documents help
interested parties better understand and apply the standard.
ISO
Enquiry stage
The Draft International Standard (DIS) is submitted to ISO Central Secretariat by the committee
secretary. It is then circulated to all ISO members who get 3 months to vote and comment on it.
(The submission interface should be used to submit the draft).
The DIS is approved if a two-thirds of the P-members of the TC/SC are in favor and not more
than one-quarter of the total number of votes cast are negative
If the DIS is approved the project goes straight to publication. However, the committee
leadership can decide to include the FDIS stage if needed.
Approval stage
This stage will be automatically skipped if the DIS has been approved
However, if the draft has been significantly revised following comments at the DIS stage (even if
the DIS has been approved) committees can decide to carry out this stage. (See the ISO/IEC
Directives Part 1, 2.6.4 for more information.)
If this stage is used, the Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) is submitted to ISO/Central
Secretariat (ISO/CS) by the committee secretary. The FDIS is then circulated to all ISO member
for a two-month vote (The Submission Interface should be used when sending the draft to
ISO/CS).
The standard is approved if a two-thirds majority of the P-members of the TC/SC is in favor and
not more than one-quarter of the total number of votes cast are negative. (See the ISO/IEC
Directives Part 1, 2.7 for more information.)