Subject: SC22 N2374 - Proposal for New Procedures for Standards Maint

From: "william c. rinehuls" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1996 16:29:53 -0500 (EST)

_________________beginning of title page ______________________
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22
Programming languages, their environments and system software interfaces
Secretariat:  U.S.A.  (ANSI)

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22
N2374

January 1997

TITLE:               Proposal for a New Procedure for Maintenance of
                     Mature Standards

SOURCE:              Secretariat, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22

WORK ITEM:           N/A

STATUS:              See comments in document SC22 N2373.

CROSS REFERENCE:     N2365, N2373

DOCUMENT TYPE:       N/A

ACTION:              To SC22 Member Bodies, WG Conveners and HODs for
                     information or action, as appropriate.

Address reply to:
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 Secretariat
William C. Rinehuls
8457 Rushing Creek Court
Springfield, VA 22153  USA
Tel:  +1 (703) 912-9680
Fax:  +1 (703) 912-2973
email:  [email-masked]

________________ end of title page; beginning of text __________________

ISO/IEC JTC 1                                                         
Information Technology                                                

ISO/IEC  JTC 1 N 4353                   

DATE:  1996.11.26     

REPLACES                                     

DOC TYPE:
Other document                                                        

TITLE:
Proposal for a New Procedure for Maintenance of Mature Standards      

SOURCE:
SC 21 Secretariat                                                     

PROJECT:                   

STATUS:
This document is circulated to JTC 1 National Bodies for review and   
consideration at the December 1996 JTC 1 Plenary meeting in Paris.    

ACTION ID:  ACT 

DUE DATE:  1996.12.13

DISTRIBUTION:  P and L Members                                             

MEDIUM:  E

DISKETTE NO.:            

NO. OF PAGES:  3         

Secretariat, ISO/IEC JTC 1, American National Standards Institute, 11 
West 42nd Street, New York, NY  10036; Telephone:  1 212 642 4932;    
Facsimile:  1 212 398 0023; Email:  [email-masked]                 

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 21 N 10668

Title:	PROPOSAL FOR A NEW PROCEDURE FOR MAINTENANCE OF MATURE 
STANDARDS

Source:	SC21 Interim Meeting, New York, 10-14th November 1996

Date:		14 November 1996

The Maintenance Procedures for Mature Standards specified in SC21 10667
are intended for immediate use and are an adaptation of the procedures of
JTC1 Directives 14.4, with minimal changes from those procedures. SC21
believes that the fully effective maintenance of mature standards requires
more substantial changes.  This document
	states some principles that SC21 believes should apply to the
maintenance of mature standards
	proposes procedures that SC21 believes would be effective
	summarises the changes that are needed to permit these procedures

Justification and principles

The nature of maintenance activities differs in some aspects from what
must be recognized as the mainstream JTC 1 activity, i.e., the active
development of new Standards. For mature subject areas, where the activity
is limited to correction of problems, when they appear, and minor
extensions, when required, it should not come as a surprise that
participation in "classical" standard development activities, such as
participation in National and International meetings, is low. But the pool
of expertise must exist somewhere, or there would be no need to maintain
the Standard. The technical maintenance of our Standards requires the
recruitment of this expertise into the problem resolution process, but
definitive changes to the Standard needs to remain under the control and
subject to the approval of the National Bodies. The recruitment of outside
experts will support and complement the declining level of expertise
directly available to the SC when projects reach maturity. These
objectives can be achieved by
	the submission of problems or requests for enhancement should be
open to a larger audience, and facilitated (e.g., direct access); 
	the consensus building phase (developing a response to the
request) should be relatively informal, making maximum use of IT & T
tools, involving experts who may not be Standards developers but with
technical leadership from a rapporteur or defect editor. It may not
require the participation of a defined number of National Bodies, as
expertise is more vital at this stage than large consensus (many problems
have a limited range of solutions); 
	the approval phase should continue to be via JTC 1 and SC National
Body ballot. 
	the progress of reported problems should be openly and freely
visible, to enable user- experts to track progression and to encourage
them to contribute their skills to the process

Outline of procedures 

The maintenance of mature standards (defined in a specific list, updated
by SC21 resolution) is placed under the administrative responsibility of a
Maintenance Secretariat (an SC21 NB)  with technical leadership provided
by a Maintenance Rapporteur. For each standard, or group of standards, an
editing group is formed, consisting of:
	the defect editor and any other experts nominated by NBs (as for
the editing groups defined in JTC1 Directives 14.4) 
	the Maintenance Rapporteur
	any other experts co-opted by the Maintenance Rapporteur in
consultation with the Maintenance Secretariat. These experts are not
required to have any affiliation to an SC21 or JTC1 NB or Liaison
Organisation. 

The Maintenance Secretariat will maintain a set of web pages which include
the defect reports under consideration, the proposed responses, ballot
results and final disposition. 

The work of the editing groups will normally be by email. 

In addition to the existing paths by which a defect report can be raised,
any user of the mature standards will be able to send a problem query
direct to the Maintenance Rapporteur directly, typically via a
well-publicised email address. Following possible discussion with the
editing group, and if appropriate, the query is formulated into a defect
report, which is passed to the Maintenance Secretariat and included in
World-Wide Web pages.

After whatever discussion can be achieved on the email list, the
Rapporteur, or a specific defect editor, will draft a response (Draft
Technical Corrigendum, or lesser response) and submit these to the
Maintenance Secretariat for placement on the web pages. 

If the response is a Draft Technical Corrigendum, the Maintenance
Secretariat will initiate a three-month ballot of SC21 NBs, and inform the
JTC1 Secretariat of the ballot, to allow JTC1 P-members who are not SC21
P-members to comment. For colloborative projects, ITU- T will also be
informed. The ballot shall identify the location of the DTC on the Web
pages but will NOT include the full DTC or the defect report and its
response. Ballot responses will be sent by NBs to the Maintenance
Secretariat. 

The ballot results are treated as described in JTC1 Directives 14.4, with
the Maintenance Secretariat acting in the place of the SC Secretariat. If
the TC is approved, it is submitted to ITTF for publication. 

If an issue arises from this process which would be a significant
enhancement, requiring an amendment, the issue will merely be reported to
SC21. The initiative and responsibility for any additional work will lie
with SC21 and its NBs, and would typically involve a JTC1 NWI ballot, if
there was appropriate support. 

Implications

Extensive use of the World Wide Web, with open access, is assumed in order
to provide the necessary visibility, encourage the participation of users,
and ensure timely and efficient operation of the new procedures. 

It is not intended to circulate documents - progression of defect reports
will be recorded by open web pages which are updated whenever particular
milestones are reached. These pages will also contain the text for ballot.
The web pages will thus be equivalent to the Implementors' Guides
maintained by ITU-T for common text (and other) Recommendations. 

NOTE - It is not proposed to put the standards documents themselves on the
web server. The final Technical Corrigendum sent for publication will be
on the web server. 

Notification of changes to the web pages will be sent to the SC 21
Secretariat, National Bodies and Liaison Organizations and members of the
defect resolution groups. 

Relation to immediate procedures The (immediate) procedures for
maintenance defined in SC21 N10667 differ from the (intended) procedures
outlined above in the following way:  a) in the immediate procedures, the
DTC for ballot is circulated to SC21 by the SC Secretariat (or the
Maintenance Secretariat on behalf of the SC Secretariat); in the intended
procedures the ballot is run directly by the Maintenance Secretariat and
the DTC is made available only by reference to a Web document.  b) the
immediate procedures can be operated with access limited to the web-pages
by password; the intended procedures permit open access to the web pages. 

Changes to be requested

To permit the intended procedures, which are expected to provide a more
effective defect resolution, JTC1 and ISO/IEC are requested to approve: 
a) the operation of a DTC ballot by reference to a Web document b) the
administration of an SC ballot by the Maintenance Secretariat c) open
access to the web pages containing the defect report, the proposed
response, the results and comments from any ballot, and the technical
corrigendum at both draft and final stage. 

____________________end of document SC22 N2374 ____________________