Process

The technical work that DDEX carries out, involves Charter and Full Members of the organisation providing representatives to serve on the various technical Working Groups that may exist at any one time. Associate Members may follow the activities of the Working Groups and receive certain outputs but they are not involved in the Working Groups themselves.

DDEX standards are developed in accordance with a well-defined and well-tested process. This process addresses the need for standards to be stable and properly peer-reviewed while operating in an ever-faster changing commercial environment. It also ensures that everyone’s voice is heard and that no single or group of organisation(s) can exert undue influence over the development of the standards.

Whenever a new requirement is raised, DDEX or the relevant Working Group documents the requirement. The DDEX Board, advised by the DDEX Plenary Meeting, assigns the work to a Working Group for execution. The Working Group meets, mostly online, to arrive at a technical solution.

Once the Working Group is satisfied that its solution meets the requirements, it promotes the specification to “Committee Draft”. This usually happens at a DDEX Plenary Meeting. The Committee Draft is then made available to all DDEX members, who then have the opportunity to review the proposed standard and provide comments. These comments, usually just of an editorial nature, are then considered by the Technical Management Group (comprising of representatives from each of the Working Group plus a selected number of Board members). Assuming none of the comments are problematic the TMG accepts them, documents them in the Disposal of Comments and promotes the Committee Draft to Draft Standard with a recommendation to the Board to declare it a DDEX Standard. Within a specified period of time, the Board declares a DDEX Standard.

DDEX attempts as much as possible to have decisions taken at Plenary Meetings and Working Group Meetings to be unanimous. However, this is not always possible, so, when necessary decisions are taken by consensus. DDEX broadly uses the International Organisation for Standards (“ISO”) definition of consensus which is described in the DDEX Operating Agreement as “the absence of sustained opposition to substantial issues by any important part of the concerned interests and by a process that involves seeking to take into account the views of all parties concerned and to reconcile any conflicting arguments. Consensus need not imply unanimity and is declared, if necessary, by the relevant Chair”.

The detailed standard development process document is available here.