New Standards Committee (NesCom) Conventions

Effective 3 April 2006
(Revised 08 June 2012, revised 05 December 2017, revised 02 December 2020, revised 15 May 2023, revised 28 June 2023)

These conventions serve as a guideline to some of the internal procedures that NesCom observes as part of its review and recommendations concerning IEEE SA PARs.

More in-depth information regarding the IEEE SA standards development process can be found in the IEEE SA Standards Board Operations Manual.

1. PAR Submissions

   For reasons of accountability and in accordance with Sections 5.1.1 and 5.1.2 of the IEEE SA Standards Board Operations Manual, NesCom will only accept PARs approved for submittal by the Standards Committee Chair or Standards Representative.

   PAR submittals are done through the myProject system.

2. Approved Standards Committees

   NesCom will only recommend approval of PARs from Standards Committees who have Policies and Procedures accepted by, or deemed “visibly under development” by the IEEE SA Standards Board. If the Standards Committee does not have accepted procedures or procedures “visibly under development”, the PAR will be returned to the Standards Committee, for potential subsequent NesCom submission, following AudCom acceptance of Standards Committee procedures, or categorization as “visibly under development”.

3. Standards Committee Information

   If the PAR indicates that the project falls under the scope/definition of multiple Standards Committees, the PAR should indicate Co-Standards Committees.

4. Clarity in PAR Content and Title

   NesCom will only recommend approval of PARs where the title, scope and purpose are sufficiently unambiguous, as to be understandable by a NesCom member. All acronyms shall be spelled out at first use.

   The terminology used in the PAR referring to the document to be developed shall be consistent with Section 1.2 Type of Document in the PAR, i.e., standard, recommended practice, or guide.

5. Document Scope and Document Purpose

   The Scope and Purpose fields stated on the PAR shall be written in present tense, in complete sentences, and with proper grammar as they are intended to appear in the published standard. Note: It is not mandatory that a published standard contain a Purpose clause. If the published standard will not contain a Purpose clause, this shall be noted on the PAR. The scope and purpose should be distinct and separate statements as described in the IEEE SA Standards Style Manual, sections 12.2.3 and 12.2.4. For references to other standards within the Scope and Purpose fields, the number, title, date (if appropriate), and source of the referenced standards shall be listed in the Additional Explanatory Notes field.

6. Quantification of the Ranges of Numeric Values

   For PARs for new projects, standards developers who use general terms to represent ranges (e.g. high, medium, low) within the title, scope, or purpose, must numerically define such ranges where they first appear (title, scope, or purpose, as applicable). Any exception to this must be explained.

7. PARs with Missing Data or Explanations

   NesCom will not recommend approval of PARs when required data or explanations are not included.

8. Timely Response to Comments

   1. Responsibility of NesCom member – Each NesCom member should post preliminary votes and any comments during the first 2 weeks of the “Review” period (“Individual Review” period, typically a one week interval, and the first week of the “Open Review” period). Each NesCom member should review comments and comment dialog during the “Review” period as needed, and at the latest, by the Friday prior to the scheduled NesCom meeting.
   2. Responsibility of Standards Committee/Working Group Chair – It is important that comments be resolved during the “Open Review” period, and prior to the NesCom meeting. If a NesCom member posts a comment, an initial response is requested from the Standards Committee/Working Group Chair within one week. This allows sufficient time for any required follow-up actions such as additional NesCom member comments to the response and for changes to be applied to the PAR. If the Standards Committee/Working Group Chair fails to respond to NesCom member comments by the Friday prior to the scheduled NesCom meeting, the PAR may be deferred to the next meeting, or disapproved.

9. Maximum interval for Project Deferral

   If a PAR Request or Action is deferred for two meetings without NesCom receiving an adequate response from the Standards Committee and/or the Working Group Chair to address NesCom comments, the Request or Action may be disapproved.

10. Explanation for PAR Withdrawal

    NesCom will not recommend approval of a Withdrawal PAR without a statement of the reason for the withdrawal.

11. PAR Withdrawal/PAR Resubmittal

    NesCom will consider submittals for PAR withdrawal of a project, and submittal of a replacement PAR for the same project area on an individual basis. NesCom may require that the Standards Committee provide explanation of the circumstances that prevented completion of the original PAR within the PAR validity, and may require a project plan that gives NesCom confidence that a new PAR would actually be completed within the normal (4-year) PAR validity. NesCom may require participation in the NesCom meeting by the Standards Committee Chair (or Standards Coordinator).

12. Extension Requests

    1. An extension request shall not be granted for a project if a draft document has not been generated after four years.
    2. If a project reaches 8-years after the date of original PAR approval and has not yet opened a ballot, the existing PAR may not be granted an extension.
    3. Extension Requests may be requested for a period of one to four years. Extension requests shall include sufficient information to provide reasonable confidence that the project will be completed with the additional time requested in the extension. The usual extension approval is for one to two years. When longer extensions are requested (i.e., three to four years), sufficient extenuating circumstances must be provided to justify the length of the extension.

13. Modified PARs

    1. Any substantive change(s) must be explained in section 8.1 Additional Explanatory Notes.
    2. Modified PARs will not result in a PAR extension. If a change in the completion date extends the PAR past the existing expiration date, a PAR Extension Request must be submitted. The Modified PAR and the PAR Extension Request can be submitted concurrently.

14. PARs for the Revision of a Standard

    Any substantive change(s) must be explained in section 8.1 Additional Explanatory Notes.

15. Request to Reserve a Project Number

    PARs shall only be submitted when there is a firm commitment to perform the work. If a specific number is required for a PAR upon which work is not yet ready to begin, the number can be requested for reservation from the NesCom Administrator by the Working Group Chair.

16. Grandfathered PARs

    Any existing PAR is grandfathered for extension requests, which restricts NesCom review to revised dates and discussion of the justification for extension. In the case of requests to modify an existing PAR, the latest NesCom rules for PARs will apply.

17. NesCom Mentors

    For submittals that do not receive NesCom approval, a member of NesCom may be assigned to the Standards Committee as a mentor. The mentor, acting as a representative of the Committee, will assist the Standards Committee in understanding NesCom’s reasons for not approving the submittal and will assist the Standards Committee in implementing the action(s) that NesCom has suggested.

18. PARs for the Amendment of a Standard

    1. Amendments and corrigenda are balloted documents that give explicit instructions on how to change the text in an existing base standard or an existing amendment.
    2. After the approval of a PAR to amend an existing standard, it may be necessary to change the year of base standard which the PAR is amending (i.e., if a revision has been approved to update the base standard). This change is considered administrative and will be modified in myProject by staff.

19. Document Jointly Developed with Another Organization

    If a PAR had the intent to develop the document jointly with another organization, i.e., when the answer in 7.2 of the PAR is yes, the information of the used document style guide should be provided in the Additional Explanatory Notes field.

• Submit Project Authorization Request
• IEEE SA Policies and Procedures
• Standards Board Bylaws
• Standards Board Operations Manual
• IEEE SA Board of Governors