Standard

Definition

Standard

a convention that specifies the required content and format for a work product

Classification

As illustrated in the preceding figure, procedures are part of the following inheritance hierarchy:

• Type: Concrete
• Superclass: Convention
• Subclasses: None
• Example Instances:
  • Documentation standards for structure (table of contents).
  • Modeling standards for completeness.
  • Diagramming standards for notation syntax and semantics.
  • Design standards.
  • Coding standards (e.g., HTML Coding Standards).

Responsibilities

The typical responsibilities of a standard are to:

• Improve the quality of the associated work product by helping to ensure that it has the correct content and format.
• Improve the productivity of the associated developers by allowing them to eliminate the effort required to determine and develop a concensus about the content and format of the work product.

Guidelines

• Standards may not be required if adequate templates and checklists exist.
• Standards need to be consistent with any associated templates and checklists.
• Standards may be enforced manually via inspection or built directly into associated tools.
• Unlike guidelines, standards are typically mandatory and require waivers to be violated.
• In this website, standards are stored with and primarily accessible via the associated work product.