The IEC international standards development workflow is nearing full functionality in the Online Standards Development (OSD) platform, with feedback from early adopters and national mirror committee members proving it to be a valuable tool for standards makers.
The OSD key functionalities for National Committees (NCs) were presented to more than 80 participants from IEC members at the Academy & Capacity Building workshop held virtually during the 87th IEC General Meeting. The tool can now be used for authoring, editing, commenting and voting on a standard in progress.
The OSD tool enables the full international standards development process in one online platform (XML). It is a harmonized solution for the IEC and ISO technical community to write, review and comment on technical documents.
It facilitates collaborative work in complete transparency, including commenting and comment resolution. It also provides a foundation to support Smart Standards and other digitalization initiatives.
The IEC TC 108 (safety of electronic equipment within the field of audio/video, information technology and communication technology) is one of a growing number of early adopters of the OSD platform. Valara M Davis, TC 108 Secretary, said using the platform made standards development much simpler.
"Some of the things I found helpful is that all of the normative references and bibliography are automated, and there is a quality review option to address anything you may have missed," she said.
"Compared to using a word document, things like creating sections and clauses and linking terms and cross references is so much easier. What's more, having everyone work from one single document is really beneficial."
Another IEC committee that is piloting the OSD tool is TC 114 (marine energy). Administrator of the US Technical Advisory Group (TAG) of TC 114, Arielle Cardinal, agreed that allowing different experts to comment at the same time and discuss those comments was a huge benefit.
"When we had heard about OSD, we immediately saw the value in it. Throughout the whole process the IEC team was eager to hear from users and they took great care to understand the nuances of each NC so they could set up the tool to serve all NCs," she said.
The IEC National Committee Secretary for South Africa, Johnson Marema, who is also piloting the tool, said he appreciated the reactivity of the IEC OSD team to address his suggestion regarding notifications for comments.
"We had a recommendation for improvement which we sent to the IEC which was that whenever a comment was made in a document, I should get a notification," he said.
"But when the team reviewed it, they said I could get bombarded with notifications, so they introduced the pause commenting feature. I appreciate that they were very proactive. From the recommendation I made they actioned it with this new functionality."
The OSD team is encouraging all TCs to sign up to be early adopters and experience the tool for themselves. They will soon be offering monthly webinars for those who are interested.
In addition, a monthly feedback session for users from the NCs will be organized by the OSD team to have a more dynamic exchange in respect of potential improvements and evolution. Furthermore, IEC SMB has recently took the decision that all IEC technical committees and subcommittees must have at least one project in the OSD by the end of 2024.
(Source: IEC)
