Making Standards Work: A "Whole-Product" Approach
- Published:
- Briefs, Case Studies, Papers, Reports
- Author(s) and Contributors:
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Author(s): John Smith
- Source(s) and Collection(s):
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Presentation(s): CAUSE Conferences (Archives)
- ParentTopics:
Abstract
Many campuses use standards, typically a list of officially supported hardware and software, as a way of aligning support obligations and resources. From the user's perspective, hardware and software are just a few of the links in a long chain of information entities/functions that must not break. Hardware/software standards increase the reliability of those particular links, but do not make the whole chain significantly stronger. Users feel the restrictions of the standards, but see little obvious and immediate benefit. Exceptions become the rule, and the institution loses most of the benefits of standardization. Standards can work, however, if it is acknowledged that they cannot meet all the needs of all users, if they accommodate exceptions, and if they are based upon "whole-product" information requirements. This paper suggests a new approach to standardization, with specific examples of whole-product standards.