Product Support Group Kickoff Meeting

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Product Support GroupKickoff Meeting 23 March
2009 Simulation Interoperability Standards
OrganizationStandards Activity Committee (SAC)
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SISO Product Types

• Balloted Products
• Standards
• Guidance
• Non-balloted Products
• Reference
• Administrative

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SISO Operating Principles

• Responsiveness and Responsibility
• SISO shall be responsive to the communities it
  serves. SISO shall be responsible for providing
  products and services that promote
  interoperability and reuse with the least
  possible impact on existing applications.
• Quality
• SISO activities and resulting products shall
  reflect technical excellence and the highest
  quality work.
• Discipline
• SISO shall exercise due process in all
  activities. Policies and procedures shall be
  publicly available and shall serve as the basis
  for governing the organization and its
  activities. SISO standards development processes
  shall have a balance of interests and shall not
  be dominated by any single interest category
• Fairness
• SISO activities shall provide the right of appeal
  at all levels.
• Openness
• SISO activities shall be carried out in an open
  forum where any person has access to the process.
• Consensus
• SISO decisions shall be based on simple majority
  agreement unless explicitly stated otherwise.
  Votes and ballots can be conducted in person, by
  teleconference, or by electronic balloting, as
  appropriate.

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SISO Technical Acceptance Principles

• Relevant
• SISO Products will be relevant to the Modeling
  and Simulation Community.
• Substantive
• SISO Products shall provide meaningful
  information and/or results.
• Timely
• SISO Products will be produced in an efficient
  manner to ensure that the product is useful to
  the community.
• Community Review Acceptance
• SISO Products will be reviewed by the technical
  community to which the product applies. This may
  be a narrow niche or the community broadly
  defined.

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SISO Balloted Product Principles

• Generality
• Standards Products shall be as general as
  possible, while still maintaining usefulness, to
  support the broadest community of current and
  future users.
• Stability
• Standards Products shall be established and
  changed only as necessary. They shall be
  prototyped and tested before being proposed for
  adoption to demonstrate their maturity.
• Supportability
• Standards Products shall maintain the integrity
  of the existing product suite and the needs of
  the user.

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Balloted Products Development and Support
Process (BPDSP)

• BPDSP provides direction on the support of SISO
  balloted products does not cover non-balloted
  products
• Builds on SISO Policies Procedures
• Provides specific SAC guidance
• Is a comprehensive document
• PSG guidance based on concepts developed by DIS
  SSG
• PSG guidance developed by SAC to balance
  formalism and flexibility
• BPDSP is currently drafted and under review by SAC

Every PSG does not have to reinvent the process
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Six Step Process
You Are Here
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PSG TOR Summary

• ltTAD to insert summary of tasks from TORgt

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Step 5 Interpretation, Distribution and
Configuration Management

• Responsibility of SAC and Product Support Group
• Establish and maintain a process to respond to
  questions concerning the language used in the
  standard, the intention or result meant by a
  particular action, or an explanation of the
  reasons behind what the standard says.
• Establish and maintain a Help Desk function using
  the SISO provided discussion board to answer
  questions and provide support to the community.
• Establish and maintain a Problem/Change Request
  process to collect problems and change requests
  from the community. Conduct analysis and
  refinement of submitted problems and change
  requests.
• When the PSG is operating in parallel with a PDG
  developing a revision to a product, forward
  refined PCRs to the PDG for use in revision
  development.
• Maintain liaison with related Conference Forums,
  related PDGs, related PSGs, and related SGs.
• Identify, create, and maintain SISO reference
  products relating to the balloted products being
  supported.
• Identify and create Product Nominations for
  additional parts or supplements.

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Step 6 Periodic Review

• Conduct Periodic Reviews
• Determine course of action for SISO Product(s)
• Reaffirm
• Revise
• Withdraw

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PSG Organization

• Chair
• Vice-Chair
• Secretary
• Technical Area Director
• Member
• Be registered on the PDG reflector
• PDG may establish additional membership
  requirements with approval from the SAC
• All PDG members shall maintain SISO membership.

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PSG Chair

• Elected by popular vote (simple majority)
• Primary oversight for product development and
  other activities
• Plans and conducts meetings
• Ensures voting rules upheld
• Appoints members to subgroups
• Coordinates meetings, votes, and mediates
  disagreements
• Must be a SISO member

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PSG Vice Chair

• Elected by popular vote (simple majority)
• Assists the Chair
• Conducts meetings in absence of chair
• Assumes role of Chair if Chair yields to take a
  stand on an issue
• Must be a SISO member

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PSG Secretary

• Elected by popular vote (simple majority)
• Documents the activities of the PDG
• Conducts meetings when neither the Chair or Vice
  Chair are able to attend
• Compiles minutes at face-to-face and
  teleconferences
• Summarizes discussions for electronic votes
• Must be a SISO member

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PSG Technical Area Director

• SAC Representative on the PSG
• Monitors PSG activities
• Meet SISO Policy
• Meet product support requirements
• Meet SAC directives
• Liaison between SAC and the PSG
• Proponent of the PSG to SAC
• Appointed by the SAC

If you observe behavior you believe is not
consistent with the SISO PP or BPDSP, dont stay
silent! Raise an objection. Notify the TAD.
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PSG Meetings

• Accessible to all SISO members
• Agenda published and approved
• Chair shall use Roberts Rules of Order
• Attendees may approve informal style
• PSGs encouraged to make maximum use of
  teleconference and reflector meetings
• Face-to-Face
• Announced at least 30 days in advance
• Teleconference
• Announced at least 5 days in advance
• Reflector
• Announced at least 5 days in advance
• Start date/time and End date/time specified

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PSG Voting Rules - 1

• Applies to general PSG business and comment
  resolution
• Face-to-face and teleconference Voting
• Minimum of a five-person quorum required to
  conduct a vote
• All PSG members present are eligible to vote
• PSGs with restrictive memberships (additional
  qualifications to the ones listed in BPDSP) may
  establish a quorum requirement (with SAC
  approval) based on a percentage of members
• 67 of members present must vote
• 75 consensus of members present who vote
  required to approve a motion
• If a 75 consensus cannot be reached, the issue
  is moved to an electronic vote.

Abstentions do not count as votes
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PSG Voting Rules - 2

• Electronic Vote
• PSG Chair may require an electronic vote on any
  issue
• PSG Secretary posts a summary of the related
  discussion on the PSG reflector
• Notice of an electronic vote shall be posted at
  least 10 business days in advance and the voting
  shall remain open for five days
• After announced period of time for discussion,
  electronic vote is held to allow the complete PSG
  to vote on the issue
• An electronic vote must have at least five (5)
  voters
• PSGs with restrictive memberships (additional
  qualifications to the ones listed in BPDSP) may
  establish a quorum requirement based on a
  percentage of members with SAC approval
• Electronic votes are carried by majority (50
  plus one) of votes cast

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PSG Voting Rules - 3

• Recall of Face-to-Face or Teleconference vote
  results
• Issues approved by 75 consensus at a
  face-to-face meeting or teleconference shall be
  posted to the reflector within five days
• PSG members not present for the vote shall have
  10 days from the posting to recall the issue
• Ten recall petitions shall require an electronic
  vote
• Officer voting
• PSG Chair, or acting PSG Chair
• Does not vote in face-to-face meetings or
  teleconferences
• Is not counted toward a quorum
• PSG Chair may cast the deciding vote in
  electronic votes
• Other PSG officers may vote in face-to-face,
  teleconference and electronic votes

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Appeals - 1

• PSG member may appeal any decision by the PSG
  Chair to a vote by the PSG
• All PSG votes subject to appeal to the SAC
• PSG member may appeal to the SAC, via the TAD,
  the result of a vote within five days of the vote
  being posted to the reflector
• Classified as procedural or technical
• Procedural if PSG member feels the PSG violated
  SISO, SAC, or PSG rules or principles
• Technical if the PSG member believes the approved
  approach is not the best solution
• SAC reviews the appeal and notifies the person
  who appeals and the PSG Chair of its decision and
  rationale no later than 30 days after the appeal
  was filed.
• If a resolution to the appeal cannot be reached
  within 30 days due to the scope of the appeal,
  the committee Chair will periodically post status
  of the appeal to the appropriate committee
  reflector.

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Appeals - 2

• Any member of the PSG may appeal the SACs
  decision on the appeal to the EXCOM
• Appealing member shall notify the SAC Chair of
  the appeal and the reason and rationale of the
  appeal
• SAC Chair will provide the appeal package, the
  SAC decision and rationale, and the new appeal
  request to the EXCOM Chair
• EXCOM reviews the appeal and notifies the SAC of
  its decision and rationale no later than 30 days
  after the appeal was filed
• SAC shall notify the person who appeals and the
  PDG Chair
• Decisions by the EXCOM are final.

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Dominance and Affiliation

• All Standards Bodies are having to address the
  potential of dominance of the standards process
• The IEEE has established requirements for the
  disclosure of affiliation for all IEEE Working
  Group members
• Employer
• Parent Company
• Any allegation or evidence of dominance within a
  working group is reported to the IEEE Standards
  Activity Board
• SISO has tradition of levying requirements over
  and above IEEE

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Dominance and Affiliation

• All members of SISO Groups participating in the
  standards development process will disclose
  affiliation at all meetings
• Employer
• Parent Company or Prime Contractor
• Sponsoring Agency
• Program or Product Supported

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Tools

• Web Board
• PDG File Area
• Teleconference Bridge
• Tiger Teams
• Membership Rosters
• Comment Resolution System
• Electronic Voting System
• Assigned Reviewers
• Problem/Change Reports