CDIF Process

Because CDIF produces official standards documents, we have to follow a certain process. This page describes this process and how to influence it.

Creation of new work item

CDIF is very flexible regarding new work items. Only two requirements need to be met:

• the new work item needs to be within the scope of CDIF, and should not compete with any other similar effort in the standards community
• an advocate is required who argues that CDIF should work on this new work item ("advocacy principle") and who can show that sufficient work resources are available so that the work item has a good chance of being completed.

When these requirements are met (as determined by the CDIF officers), the CDIF officers create a new working group whose charter it is to work on that item. Sometimes, a new work item is assigned to an existing working group if this seems more appropriate.

Organization of a Working Group

Working Groups are open to any CDIF member who has an interest in the work of the group. Guests are usually welcome (at the discretion of the working group chair). Any CDIF Working Group must have a chair to be active. The chair is officially determined by the CDIF officers, in practice by common consensus. The responsibility of the chair is to organize working group meetings, ensure that proper process is being followed, and ultinately, as a management position, to make sure that the goals of the working group are being reached.

Working Groups that produce specifications / standards drafts also have a document editor whose primary responsibility it is to produce standards drafts consistent with the decisions made in the working group.

Process in a Working Group producing a Standard

The process in a CDIF Working Group whose goal it is to produce a technical specification that ultimately becomes a standard revolves around a current baseline document. The current baseline is ideally distributed by the working group's editor prior to any working group meeting. Working group members are supposed to comment on the current draft either during working group meetings, or off-line by writing working papers.

During working group meetings, the current baseline is reviewed against the comments produced by the working group members. This usually leads to instructions to the working group editor and finally to a new baseline prior to the next working group meeting.

Officially, all technical decisions are made by vote (one vote per voting company present in the working group meeting); in practice, almost always by consensus (people usually agree whether X has problem Y and whether Z can solve it).

There is another important informal CDIF principle: "disagreeing" is not allowed, only proposing better solutions. Democratic bodies sometimes end up in deadlock; proposing solutions instead of showing problems has a much better chance for rapid success.

Eventually, the working group will believe that they have reached their goal. The working group as a whole will then finally review the standards draft and if they cannot find open issues with it, CDIF calls that "the standards draft has passed Final Review".

Final Inspection and the role of the Integration Working Group

When a standards draft has passed Final Review, it is being passed to a three-person Final Inspection Team. The Final Inspection Team has the responsibility to ensure that the proposed standards draft meets all CDIF criteria, is technically sound, and is integrated with published CDIF standards and the work of other working groups. The Final Inspection Team consists of the working group chair, the working group editor, and a representative of the Integration Working Group. When the Final Inspection Team decides that all criteria are met, CDIF calls that "the standards draft has passed Final Inspection."

The Integration Working Group is chaired by the CDIF Vice Chair (Technical). It is a "virtual working group" that meets whenever issues arise that affect multiple working groups within CDIF, or the CDIF architecture. Its members are the working group chairs of the working groups affected by the issue. The Integration Working Group (IWG) officially has veto rights on any proposed technology based on integration considerations (in practice people work proactively to avoid problems beforehand).

Vote

Once a standards draft has passed Final Inspection, it is sent to all CDIF Voting Members who have one month of time to review the proposed draft and to vote on it. If the vote passes (it always has in the past), the standards draft is being passed to the EIA who reviews that the standards drafts has been developed according to EIA rules. If it has (it always has in the past), the standards draft becomes an EIA Interim Standard.

Last modified: 97-05-09 by CDIF Webmaster.Copyright (C) 1997 EIA/CDIF. All rights reserved.
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