Both data standards and the standards development organizations (SDO) that develop, set, and maintain standards have grown in quantity and use over the years. This has been especially true for data standards relevant to the dynamic talent marketplace addressed by the T3 Innovation Network (T3 Network).
The focus of this paper is the U.S. approach to standards development and its application to data standards used in the talent marketplace by education and workforce partners. The U.S. approach is unique in its reliance on voluntary consensus standards that are developed through public-private collaboration among employers, government agencies, education, training and credentialing organizations, and SDOs. This public-private approach is embraced by the federal government through documents such as the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-119¹ (A-119), that is used by federal agencies to evaluate the voluntary consensus standards development processes of SDOs before working with SDOs in the development or adoption of voluntary consensus standards.
The T3 Innovation Network² covered the unique approach to standards development in greater detail in the paper on “Public-Private Standards Development and Use by Government for the Talent Marketplace”³. That paper provided recommendations on how to further strengthen public and private collaboration in the development and use of voluntary consensus standards. It included recommendations for implementing guidelines reflected in A-119, encouraging government to participate in the standards development process, and providing additional guidance to SDOs for engaging government agencies as they develop public-private standards. It also included a recommendation to explore a public-private standards collaborative.
This paper complements and builds on that paper by further exploring the key roles of public and private stakeholders in the standards development process including employers, government agencies, and education, training and credentialing organizations with a special focus on the role of the business owner—who represent the process owners of their organization’s work, product, or solution and anyone that has a use case important to their work. This paper outlines and explains a model approach for standards development consistent with existing SDO processes. The model approach outlined in this paper is intended to promote a common understanding of the SDO process leading to greater transparency and participation from various stakeholders, including government agencies. In particular, it is intended to clarify when and how business owners and technical participants from stakeholder organizations should participate in the process to maintain the necessary balance for achieving results that matter to both public and private stakeholders.
This paper and the model roles and processes for standards development outlined below were reviewed and discussed with SDOs, government agencies, and other organizations during a December 18, 2019 webinar and additional conversations with stakeholders. What follows is a high-level overview of the involvement of business owners in the standards development process. Then the paper presents a model approach to standards development through a 14-step diagram and analysis of each step (the actors involved in each step and what they are expected to do). It is important to note that this paper was developed taking into consideration the plethora of SDO processes that exist in this space. It is not directive or prescriptive to one approach but rather an idealized way of looking at the general processes that allow a business owner to engage. The paper concludes with implications for sustainability when data standards development processes are open and transparent, provide a clear role for business owners and their return on investment (money, time, and resources).
