2011 Status of IEEE Reliability Society Standards


The IEEE Reliability Society created a committee to develop new standards and sustain existing standards. This committee is called the IEEE Reliability Society Standards Committee (IEEE-RS-SC). The IEEE-RS-SC is sustaining 5 standards. These standards are:


1. IEEE 1332-1998 (Standard Reliability Program)
2. IEEE 1413-2010 (Standard Framework for Reliability Prediction of Hardware)
3. EEE 1413.1-2002 (Guide for Selecting and Using Reliability Predictions Based on IEEE 1413)
4. IEEE 1624-2008 (Standard for Organizational Reliability Capability)
5. IEEE 1633-2008 (Recommended Practice on Software Reliability)

These 5 standards are sustained on a 5 year refresh cycle. One standard, IEEE-1332-1998 is going through a refresh now. The revision of IEEE 1332 is planned for completion by December 2012. Another standard, IEEE 1413-2010 completed a refresh last year, with standards board approval to update the initially released version, IEEE 1413-1998. IEEE 1413.1-2002 is going through a refresh with expected completion by December 2012. The ballot process for IEEE P1413.1 will start after the ballot process for IEEE P1332 ends.

The revision of IEEE P1332 is planned for completion by December 2012. Here is the status of the Project Authorization Request (PAR) for IEEE P1332:

  • PAR approved by the IEEE Standards Board New Standards Committee (NesCom) on March 26, 2008
  • The IEEE 1332 working group held its kick-off meeting on January 31, 2008
  • The IEEE 1332 revised draft was completed and ballot process began on December 12, 2011
  • The ballot group forming process will complete on January 2, 2012, and the ballot will start shortly thereafter

A new process for sustaining active standards will take effect on January 2, 2012. The IEEE-SA Board of Governors (BoG) and IEEE-SA Standards Board (SASB), comprised of volunteers who oversee the standards development process, have approved and planned the implementation of a new process for maintaining active standards. The new process includes the following changes:

  • Extend the maintenance timeline for IEEE standards from 5 years to 10 years
  • Phase out the reaffirmation and stabilization processes by year 2013
  • Place the focus primarily on the revision process for standards that require maintenance action (revision or withdrawal will be the only available actions for maintaining active standards)
  • Identify approved IEEE standards as either active or inactive

The IEEE-RS-SC considers these changes to be an improvement over the previous process, since this new process is more streamlined and simplified approach to standards maintenance, and makes it easier for standards working group participants to comply with the policies and procedures of both IEEE and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

To join the IEEE standards develop, access the link: < http://standards.ieee.org/develop/index.html >