This year Australia hosts the Plenary meeting. To give the ISO committee its full title, it is ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC7, which is International Standards Organisation, International Electrotechnical Commission, Joint Technical Committee 1 (Information Technology), Sub-Committee 7 (Software and Systems Engineering). More about this at http://mlaa.com.au/SC7/
The
committee that deals with Personal and Corporate Data is being reconvened to
revise the Australian Standard (AS)-4590 Interchange of Client Information.
They are seeking the active participation of constituted committee
organisations in the revision of the standard - the Australian Computer Society
is a constituted committee organisation. Is there anyone from the ACS with the
time, interest and willingness to participate in this revision? Your
participation can be as much or as little as you want, from attending meetings
and discussions, helping draft the revisions through to simply being willing to
review drafts and send in comments. More here.
If you can participate, please email nsc@mail.acs.org.au.
Recordkeeping is the discipline of ensuring that authoritative and reliable evidence of business transactions are maintained over time for as long as they are required(broadly speaking). Requirements for records are mandated for government agencies in a variety of Public Records/Archives legislation. For private organisations records are a critical part of the governance and accountability requirements (increasingly backed by legislation such as the US Sabine/Oxley law; or more locally in the reporting and regulatory requirements from ASIC, ATO etc). Nationally there has been an Australian Standard since 1995 about this and this is now superseded by the International Standard issued in 2001 based on this work. More here. If you can participate, please email nsc@mail.acs.org.au
Despite electronic commerce, electronic data interchange and a host of IT based initiatives, a lot of business documentation is still paper based andlikely to remain so for a long time. One of the problems with this is that necessary information can be omitted and, even when it is included, can be difficult to identify. This proposed standard will investigate whether and how to standardise the information included on a range of business documents, and how this could be made machine readable. The potential ROI for Australia is well into the billions. More here. If you can participate, please email nsc@mail.acs.org.au.
Quite a number of interesting developments. All taken from The August issue of “The Global Standard” from Standards Australia.
Risk Management
There is a project to develop a handbook entitled Risk Management Guidelines – a Companion to AS 4360:2004. Although this isn’t specifically a software development standard, risk management is assuming greater importance in IT Management. For more information see www.riskmanagement.com.au
Managing Business
Records
Having led development of the first International Standard for records management (ISO 15489), Standards Australia has just launched a new facilitative Standard on analysing work processes from a records management viewpoint.
The same criticism which used to be made of quality management systems is also made of records management requirements, that they are additional burdens to the organisation’s business. The process orientation of both ISO 9001:2000 and of the records management Standard (AS ISO 15489) aims to integrate Standards compliance with the work as it is performed. More information on SA’s web site at www.standards.com.au or www.events.standards.com.au for seminars on record keeping.
Yet another unglamorous area gets a revamp and becomes just that little bit more interesting.
Designing software
for users with disabilities
New ISO guidelines will assist people with a wide range of disabilities by removing barriers that prevent them from using or getting the best out of software and, in so doing, contributing to their overall effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction.
ISO/TS 16071 will provide a roadmap to software design that takes into account the varying physical and sensory capabilities of users to ensure that it can be used not only by people with visual, hearing, motor or cognitive disabilities, but also the elderly, the temporarily disabled – and by those with no disability at all.
At last. Something to counter those awfully clever but completely unusable web sites and software products.
Business cooperation.
There is an interesting article on supply chain management which points out the need for suppliers, at various points in the supply chain, to meet rigorous standards. Organisations simply can’t do all the overseeing themselves, especially when the supply chain spans several countries and, instead, will increasingly rely on international standards and the existing compliance mechanisms to ensure the integrity and operations of that supply chain.
While the article is primarily aimed at product supply such as food or retail items, it can just as easily apply to software development, distribution and support. In other words, you are only as good as your compliance with appropriate recognised standards.
Who would have thought that standards would be at the forefront of company performance. But just look at it. In general quality and performance there is ISO 9001 which, while it won’t guarantee that good product will be produced is more often associated with good product than bad. Standards Australia have been producing a series of standards which document good practice in the areas of risk management (AS 4360), knowledge management (HB275) and now corporate governance (AS 8000, AS 8001, AS8002, AS8003, AS8004). Standards have been at the forefront of commercial advance for centuries and these latest standards continue the tradition. Now there is a call for participation in developing guidelines for IT governance. This set of standards and guidelines are intended
to address the
governance and management of information technology systems and projects. The
standards will assist senior office holders at the board level, to meet their
obligations in controlling how IT systems support the organisation.
If you would like to contribute to these standards and guidelines either as a reviewer or more directly, contact Alistair Tegart at Standards Australia on 1300 65 46 46.