Definition of Standard

A document that establishes engineering and technical requirements for:

• products, processes,
• procedures, practices, and methods

that have been

• decreed by authority or
• adopted by consensus

Sources of Standards

Government (e.g. Military and NATO)

Typically by authority

Commercial (e.g. ISO, EIA, SAE, and IEEE)

Typically by consensus

Types of Standards

Process standard describes "What to Do"

Examples: IEEE 1220, EIA/ANSI 632, ISO 15288, Company Procedures

Capability standard describes "How Well"

Examples: 731, ISO 15504, SE-CMM, CMMI-SE/SW

Information standard describes "What Data"

Examples: ISO 10303/AP233, CADAM (architecture data model)

Language standard describes "How to Represent System Attributes"

Examples: UML, IDEF0, VHDL, 1471

Categories of Standards

De Jure

A de jure standard is an official standard with legal status. It is usually produced by a national or international organization which has no specific (biased to any one company) commercial interests.

De Facto

A de facto standard is an informal standard, that is developed by a single vendor or a group of vendors and generally arise from innovative products that appeal to most people or producers who then decide to use the product.

De facto standards do not go through an official standards-setting process. (Senn,1995), (Shier, 1996).

Process Standards

The process model in a "process" standard has two parts:

1. Declarative Part describes the objects in the model (terminology, end products, enabling products, associated processes, documentation, requirements, control elements, external elements) and how these objects relate to each other.
2. Procedural Part describes what actions to be taken on or with the objects of the model, who does the acting, and the different modes of the actions: mandated (shall), recommended (should), permissions (may) and prohibited (shall not), not recommended (should not), deprecated (may not).
   
   

What does "Normative" and "Informative" Mean?

These are common terms used in reference to ISO standards but are usually unfamiliar to users of SE-related standards. The trend in US standards is to adopt these terms.

"Normative" elements are the declarative plus procedural parts of a standard, typically clauses 1 through N and normative annexes (if marked as such). "Informative" elements are the explanations and examples that clarify the declarative or procedural parts of the standard including notes (embedded or footnotes), informative annexes, forward and introduction.