A few recent sample proposals are available at: NISO Proposed Work Item Template
This document will help you to organize information about a proposed project and to get feedback
from the NISO Topic Committee, NISO membership and the community. Project Proposers draft
Work Items for approval by a Topic Committee and the NISO Voting Membership.
Good practice is to prepare a draft and circulate to experts within and outside the NISO
membership before submitting or asking for broad feedback. This allows you to improve the
content and begin to build a constituency for the project. Work to keep the content to
approximately one to two pages.
The following sections should be included:
Work Item Title:
The title should include a verb that describes the kind of work that would be done and the
deliverable or other objective, and any key contextual information. For example: Develop a
Recommended Practice on the Application of RFID in US Libraries. In addition, a shorter, more
easily identified working group name should be proposed at this stage (e.g., SUSHI).
The following proposed work item is submitted by: Include names and affiliations (if
available) for all proposers.
Background and Problem Statement:
Describe the current environment and issues or problems that this work item is intended to
address. Please include related work that has been completed or that is underway and describe
what is needed to complete or augment that work. While it is important to take a broad strategic
view, please provide specific details or example of how the issue affects the constituencies that
NISO serves. What are the risks to the community of not doing the project? Think of the
audiences you are trying to reach through this work and what they care about.
Statement of Work:
Describe goals, objectives, and means. Remember that this is a starting point. Be specific as
possible but don’t start the project! Please include:
Project Goals: What are you trying to accomplish? Think of verbs like “improve” or “allow
for”. Describe who will benefit and how. This builds from your problem statement.
o What does the initiative need to do/provide/solve. AND, what does it NOT need
to do/provide/solve
o Who will benefit from the deliverables?
Specific Deliverables and Objectives: Describe the concrete outcome(s) of the project.
Expand on the deliverables in the title. Include any discrete tasks that must be
accomplished as part of creating the deliverable. This might include conducting surveys,
collecting examples of current practice, defining new practice.
o How will the success of the work be measured or proved?
Process: What approach do you foresee using: e.g., Appoint a Working Group (typical),
Hold a Thought Leader Meeting, Engage Primary Editor and Response Panel, etc.
Return on Investment: What benefits will accrue to adopters? It would be helpful if these
can be described in relation to anticipated required development.
Engagement Plan: How will the output of this project be
circulated/advertised/communicated, particularly to stakeholders? How can uptake be
encouraged?
Partners and Participation:
This is a crucial section of the Work Item Proposal. Describe other organizations—or organization
subsets—that have a stake in the issue (or who would be expected to implement any solution),
especially any that may bear development costs, and what role they will play in the work, if any.
Are they already included in communication about this issue? Do they already support this
project, and how? [Including specific statements of support, participation and/or adoption is
encouraged.] Describe the type of people you need rather than specific people. Include a
description of specific knowledge or skills, what organizational representation is required both
from the perspective of the type of organization and role within organizations. Identify any
expertise or skills that will need to come from outside NISO.
Timeline:
Provide target dates using Months from Project Approval for the stages of the work. Typically,
NISO recommendations are published within 18 months of the formation of the working group
(but shorter timetables are acceptable too, of course). An example timeline is shown below.
Month 1: Appointment of working group
Month 2: Approval and publication of charge and initial work plan (including final
determination of scope)
Months 3-9: Completion of information gathering (phase 1)
Months 10-13: Completion of initial draft recommended practices document (phase 2)
Months 14-16: Public comment period
Month 18: Responses to comments and publication of final NISO Recommended
Practice (target <month> <year>)
Funding:
This may or may not be applicable, as most NISO projects are accomplished with industry
volunteers meeting via conference call and asynchronous work. If applicable, identify any external
sources of funding for the project. If you are seeking funding, please include this only for internal
review. |
| rm: stakeholders seem to care more about presentation of value, rather than it having the stamp of an international org, so ANSOANSI/NISO would be fine even though US-based. jk: seems routine that NISO standard can get ISO designation I've seen NISO standards becoming ISO standards w/o much friction.
jk: question to answer - what's the track record for NISO standards becoming ISO standards? ansihttps://www.niso.org/niso-io/2017/11/niso-standards-are-free to use-read-use
all: ok to draft work item for review by WG (John and Karen) |