World Class Standards Recommended Improvements to The ETSI Standards Engineering Process Hans van der Veer Chair OCG-IOP & Steve Randall STF308 OCG#32,

World Class Standards

Recommended Improvementsto

The ETSI Standards Engineering Process

Hans van der Veer

Chair OCG-IOP

&

Steve Randall

STF308OCG#32, 12 June 2007, Sophia Antipolis

ETSI Standards Engineering Process: OCG#32 (12 June 2007) 2

World Class StandardsIntroduction

Background Interoperability: identified as a topic of strategic importance for ETSI in 2005

STF308 study Review of the ETSI Standards Engineering Process and propose

Recommendations for Improvements Started in June 2006 with OCG-IOP as Steering Group and TC MTS as the

supporting TB Timeline

• Review with OCG: June 12, 2007• Review & Approval with Board: September 10-11, 2007• Implementation by ETSI Secretariat

Objective of this Meeting Review recommendations of STF308 Get feedback on feasibility, gaps/omissions, etc

• Recommendations should be complete and implementable!

Get agreement for the proposed Recommendations



Sept. 2005 ETSI SWOT – Technical Interoperability

Strengths STF, PTCC and Plugtest activities Global network of Collaborations Forums Hosting

Weaknesses Ex-ante standardization No formal, imposed project control process No structured approach to interoperability testing “One standard for everybody” approach

Threats: Diversity of technologies with different standards approaches Competing technologies Open standards & open source movements Other SDOs claiming integra- tor & project coordinator roles

Opportunities Structured approach to interoperability testing Leadership position for (large) projects: e.g. inte- grator & architect role EU political momentum



Overview of DTR/MTS-00101

Analysis of the Engineering Processes within other bodies: 3GPP IETF OMA IEEE ITU-T DVB

Analysis of the Engineering Process within ETSI Recommendations for changes to ETSI’s process which should

help to assure the inherent interoperability of implementations



Basis of the Analyses

The analyses of engineering processes were based on the existence and use of the following aspects: A means of initiating new work items aligned with strategic objectives A means of distributing elements of new work to multiple

development bodies A means of coordinating work distributed across multiple

development bodies Document drafting methods and facilities Procedures for validating completed standards and sets of standards A means of controlling changes to approved standards



Analysis of other Standards Bodies

Protocol standards development in a number of bodies is still based on a 3 Stage method (as per I.130): User requirements Functional Architecture Detailed Protocol specification

Most other bodies raise Project or Topic work items which then spawn lower-level work items

In many organizations, responsibilities are distributed and monitored by a single central group

Coordination of related standards is generally good and even quite formalized in a few organizations

In most cases validation of standards is rather ad hoc and, in some instances, accidental!



Analysis of ETSI’s Standards Engineering Process

Drafting procedures and support amongst the best but mainly in the area of cosmetic rather than technical quality

The combined facilities offered by STFs, PTCC and MTS itself are unique and enviable

The Work Programme management culture is document based rather than project based

Distribution and coordination of projects across multiple TBs depends on individual TBs

Agreements with other SDOs are oriented towards the sharing of documents rather than resources

Validation facilities exist but validation is not mandatory Change control is ad hoc



Recommendations (1)

The analysis identified that ETSI's own process is very good in many aspects

However, lessons can be learnt from the other SDOs There are a number of areas where changes in ETSI's process

should result in improvements to the interoperability inherent in ETSI's standards



Recommendations (2)

Recommendation 1: ETSI's technical committees should use a hierarchical system for

organizing and managing work items.

Recommendation 2: If a hierarchical system for organizing work items is introduced to the

ETSI standards engineering process (Recommendation 1), a coordinating editor should be appointed for each high-level work item with overall responsibility for the coordination of the content and schedule of the subordinate work items and deliverables.



An Example of a Hierarchical Work Item

IPv6 Testing

Level 1

IPv6 Core

WI Level 2

IPv6 Mobility

WI Level 2

IPv6 to IPv4

WI Level 2

IPv6 Security

WI Level 2

RequirementsCatalogueWI Level 3

Interoperability

WI Level 3

Conformance

WI Level 3

TSS & TP

WI Level 4

Test Suite

WI Level 4

Core TSS & TP

Deliverable

Core TTCN-3 ATS

Deliverable

Core Catalogue

Deliverable



Recommendations (3)

Recommendation 3: If the subject area of a new high-level work item does not fit clearly

into the scope of a single existing technical committee, ETSI members should be encouraged to submit the work item request to OCG for approval and allocation of responsibilities

Recommendation 4: The ETSI Secretariat should investigate the provision of an easy-to-

use project management software package that can be used for small projects as well as large ones

Recommendation 5: All technical committee support staff should be trained to be

competent in project planning and management techniques and the associated software tools available in ETSI



Recommendations (4)

Recommendation 6: The current set of fixed milestones associated with a work item

should be extended to include significant stages within the drafting process

Recommendation 7: The ETSI Secretariat should investigate how the existing Work

Programme Management application could be used to monitor the progress of work items upon which ETSI projects depend but which are developed in external SDOs.

Recommendation 8: All technical committees should be encouraged to use a top-down

and phased approach to the development of standards (particularly protocol specifications)



Recommendations (5)

Recommendation 9: All technical committees should identify for each work item a method

that will be used for validation purposes.

Recommendation 10: ETSI should ensure that the use of the TC-MTS validation techniques

and guidelines is promoted to all technical committees

Recommendation 11: "Specification Validated" should be included in the fixed set of WPM

milestones

Recommendation 12: All technical committees should be encouraged to incorporate

Plugtest events into their standards validation processes.



Recommendations (6)

Recommendation 13: All technical committees should identify a method of change

management which is appropriate to the nature of the specifications they produce

Recommendation 14: The ETSI Secretariat should investigate the provision of an easy-to-

use, web-based change request and management system and train all TB support staff in its application and use

Recommendation 15: OCG and The ETSI Board should commission the production of a

"Managing Standards Engineering" handbook to provide guidance and direction on all aspects ETSI's standards engineering process



Conclusion

DTR/MTS-00101 has started MTS approval by correspondence. Planned completion 20 April 2007

OCG review in June 2007 Approve Recommendations to present to The Board

Board review September 2007 Approve Implementation Plan

If required, a follow-up STF in 2008 to develop an implementation plan

Documents

World Class Standards Recommended Improvements to The ETSI Standards Engineering Process Hans van der Veer Chair OCG-IOP & Steve Randall STF308 OCG#32,