Standards Development Procedure
1. Standards are developed through the following stages:
Stage
0 Preliminary Stage
1 Proposal Stage
2 Preparatory Stage
3 Approval Stage
4 Publication Stage
5 Ratification Stage
Work Item
Preparatory Work
New Work Item Proposal
Working Draft
Draft Standard
DGIWG Standard
Submission to NATO and
other associated bodies for
ratification.
Stage Identifier
SZ
NWIP (and WD0)
WD (WD to be numbered)
DS
DGIWG Standard
STANAG, ...
Note: Since an outline or preliminary working draft is to accompany a NWIP for a standard this initial working draft is
identified as WD0.
Table B4 Stages of Development
2. In addition to the five development stages, Projects may be in a preliminary stage called Stage Zero (SZ),
which does preparatory work before the development of a NWIP. Work may be proposed in a NWIP to
begin at either Stage Zero or Stage 1. The result of preparatory work at Stage Zero is the Review
Summary document that documents the initial work and one or more NWIPs.
3. Every Project that is to be undertaken by a Technical Panel needs to be proposed in a New Work Item
Proposal. Proposals may be submitted by any member nation, or by a Technical Panel chairman. New
Work Item Proposals may be approved by a vote of the Plenary or by a letter ballot of the members. A
proposed NWIP must include the name of a Project Leader and at least one member nation that agrees to
commit the resources to complete the work. The NWIP will also contain target dates for progressing the
work through the first four stages of the standards development process.
4. The level of consensus that is required for approval of a NWIP is a majority of positive versus negative
votes, with at least three positive votes. This level is high enough to ensure consensus, but not so high as
to result in a deadlock. The level of consensus may be changed by resolution of the Plenary.
5. A committee vote or an electronic "Letter Ballot"1 of 60 days duration is required to progress a standard
from one stage to another. A vote of all DGIWG members is required for a NWIP. All work in the
preparatory stage is within the Technical Panel and or Project Team, which may pass the document to the
DGIWG full membership when it feels the document is ready for approval.
Member states may vote:
Yes
Yes with comments
No, with comments, where the “No” vote
will be turned to a “Yes” if the comments
are resolved.
Abstain
1
An electronic Letter Ballot will be done over the DGIWG SiteScape Forum. E-Mail notification of ballots
is sent automatically by the forum.
The voting process follows the one used in ISO and is designed to avoid delays in progress of standards
development. A “No” vote must come with comments explaining the reason for this vote. "No" votes must
be addressed and force reconsideration or clarification of the document. There cannot be any illegitimate
stalling of the voting process. A “No” vote may only be discarded if it is an unreasonable or illogical
comment.
6. The Technical Panel shall form an editing sub-committee to endeavour to resolve all negative comments
and to correct any editorial errors before re-balloting the document. The editing sub-committee will
normally consist of the Project Team members plus representatives from nations that submitted negative
comments. There are no observers in an editing sub-committee. All participants must commit to the full
editing process. An editing sub-committee may call in subject matter experts to address specific items.
7. Figure B-4-1 illustrates the stages of development of a standard through the DGIWG standardization
process. A standard will progress to become a Working Draft Specification (Stage 2), a Draft Standard
(Stage 3) and a DGIWG Standard (Stage 4). Depending on the type of standard, this work may move
forward to NATO for consideration as a NATO STANAG (Stage 5) or to other standards bodies for
consideration of adoption. At each stage of progression, the Project Sheet would be revised to reflect the
change in status.
DEVELOPMENT PHASE (NOW)
PLANNING PHASE (NEXT)
Proposal
DGIWG vote
to do work
NWIP Form
for Planning
Stage 0:
Review
Summary
Other work
Stage 1:
NWIP Form
for Project
DGIWG
vote
Technical Panel
consensus
Stage 2:
Working
Draft
Stage 3:
Draft
Standard
DGIWG
vote
NATO
IGeo
vote
Stage 4:
DGIWG
Standard
Other
standards
bodies
Preliminary
Work
Document
Project Sheet
“Planning
Phase”
Stage 5:
STANAG
Project Sheet
“Development
Phase”
Regularly updated
Figure B-4-1. New Work Item Proposal (NWIP) and Project Sheet Flow Diagram for a Standard
8. Figure B-4-2 illustrates the stages of development of a report through the DGIWG process. A report will
be initiated by the submission of a New Work Item Proposal. An outline or requirement statement for the
report is usually attached to the NWIP. In some cases, work may begin at Stage 0 to develop the
requirements. The work will then progress to produce a Working Draft and then a final report. Reports
are published by DGIWG electronically and possibly as a printed document. They may be forwarded to
NATO to become an Allied Technical Publication.
DEVELOPMENT PHASE (NOW)
PLANNING PHASE (NEXT)
Proposal
DGIWG vote
to do work
NWIP Form
for Planning
for a Report
Stage 0:
Review
Other work
Stage 1:
NWIP Form
for Report
DGIWG
vote
DGIWG
vote
Stage 2:
Working
Draft Report
Stage 4:
Report
Requirements
for Report
Project Sheet
“Planning
Phase”
Project Sheet
“Development
Phase”
NATO
IGeo
vote
Stage 5:
Allied
Technical
Publication
Other
standards
bodies
Regularly updated
Figure B-4-2. New Work Item Proposal (NWIP) and Project Sheet Flow Diagram for a Report
9. The structure of a standard should follow, as far as possible, the ISO Directives Part 3, "Rules for the
structure and drafting of international standards". This will make DGIWG standards align closely with
the ISO standards, and make it easier to adopt ISO standards as part of the DIGEST suite of standards.