Standards Organizations CTOs Should Track

“The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from” teaches Andrew S. Tanebaum in his classic text on Computer Networks.

His point is so very important for CTOs to noodle over.  Every vendor, integrator and PM will tell you they are following standards.  GREAT!   But so what?  The point is they need to be following the standards you expect them to follow and they need to be building to your vision by following your guidance.

For CTOs, standards are things that everyone tries to deviate from.  They are created to make life easier and when appropriately developed and used/implemented they can significantly enhance the overall
functionality and performance of all elements of the technology stack.  Even companies which develop proprietary, closed source code like standards, but generally those companies tend to ignore standards
whenever it is convenient since doing so can help them lock others out of key market areas.

As an aid to thinking through standards, I’d recommend CTO’s turn to the standard for online encyclopedic information, Wikipedia.  Wikipedia has a couple great entries on standards.  The primary entry is at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard.   From there we read that a standard is “It is usually a formal document that establishes uniform engineering or technical criteria, methods, processes and practices.”

Elsewhere on Wikipedia there is a list of all standards bodies.  Not every standards body deals with topics of interest to IT focused CTOs.  The list below is an extract from the Wikipedia article that only has those groups I think are working topics of interest to CTOs.

• 3GPP – 3rd Generation Partnership Project – Website
• 3GPP2 – 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 – Website
• AIIM – Association for Information and Image Management – Website
• ANSI – American National Standards Institute
• DMTF – Distributed Management Task Force. develops and maintains standards for systems management of IT environments in enterprises and the Internet.
• Ecma International – Ecma International (previously called ECMA).  Computer standards with a business-like approach.
• GS1 – Global supply chain standards (identification numbers, barcodes, electronic commerce transactions, RFID) – Website
• IBTA – Infiniband Trade Association
• IEEE – Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – Website
  
• IETF – Internet Engineering Task Force – Website
• ISO – International Organization for Standardization – Website
• ITU – The International Telecommunication Union – Website
  • ITU-R – ITU Radiocommunications Sector (formerly known as CCIR)
  • ITU-T – ITU Telecommunications Sector (formerly known as CCITT)
  • ITU-D – ITU Telecom Development (formerly known as BDT)
• Liberty Alliance – Liberty Alliance – Website
  
• Media Grid – Media Grid Standards Organization – Website
• OASIS – Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards – Website
• OGC – Open Geospatial Consortium – Website
• OMA – Open Mobile Alliance – Website
• OGF – Open Grid Forum (merger of Global Grid Forum (GGF) and Enterprise Grid Alliance (EGA)) – Website
• TM Forum – Telemanagement Forum – TMF Website
• W3C – World Wide Web Consortium – Website
• WSA – Website Standards Association Website

I’d recommend a review of the list and a familiarization with the sites of the organizations above.  Staying fluent in the content on the sites above can help you provide valuable context and direction to development team and integrators, and can help in your dialog with IT vendors.