1. Product Support Group Kickoff Meeting
23 March 2009
Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization Standards Activity Committee (SAC)

2. SISO Product Types Balloted Products Non-balloted Products Standards
Guidance
Non-balloted Products
Reference
Administrative

3. SISO Operating Principles
Responsiveness and Responsibility
SISO shall be responsive to the communities it serves. SISO shall be responsible for providing products and services that promote interoperability and reuse with the least possible impact on existing applications.
Quality
SISO activities and resulting products shall reflect technical excellence and the highest quality work.
Discipline
SISO shall exercise due process in all activities. Policies and procedures shall be publicly available and shall serve as the basis for governing the organization and its activities. SISO standards development processes shall have a balance of interests and shall not be dominated by any single interest category
Fairness
SISO activities shall provide the right of appeal at all levels.
Openness
SISO activities shall be carried out in an open forum where any person has access to the process.
Consensus
SISO decisions shall be based on simple majority agreement unless explicitly stated otherwise. Votes and ballots can be conducted in person, by teleconference, or by electronic balloting, as appropriate.

4. SISO Technical Acceptance Principles
Relevant
SISO Products will be relevant to the Modeling and Simulation Community.
Substantive
SISO Products shall provide meaningful information and/or results.
Timely
SISO Products will be produced in an efficient manner to ensure that the product is useful to the community.
Community Review & Acceptance
SISO Products will be reviewed by the technical community to which the product applies. This may be a narrow niche or the community broadly defined.

5. SISO Balloted Product Principles
Generality
Standards Products shall be as general as possible, while still maintaining usefulness, to support the broadest community of current and future users.
Stability
Standards Products shall be established and changed only as necessary. They shall be prototyped and tested before being proposed for adoption to demonstrate their maturity.
Supportability
Standards Products shall maintain the integrity of the existing product suite and the needs of the user.

6. Balloted Products Development and Support Process (BPDSP)
BPDSP provides direction on the support of SISO balloted products; does not cover non-balloted products
Builds on SISO Policies & Procedures
Provides specific SAC guidance
Is a comprehensive document
PSG guidance based on concepts developed by DIS SSG
PSG guidance developed by SAC to balance formalism and flexibility
BPDSP is currently drafted and under review by SAC
Every PSG does not have to “reinvent” the process

7. Six Step Process
You Are Here

8. PSG TOR Summary
<TAD to insert summary of tasks from TOR>

9. Step 5 : Interpretation, Distribution and Configuration Management
Responsibility of SAC and Product Support Group
Establish and maintain a process to respond to questions concerning the language used in the standard, the intention or result meant by a particular action, or an explanation of the reasons behind what the standard says.
Establish and maintain a Help Desk function using the SISO provided discussion board to answer questions and provide support to the community.
Establish and maintain a Problem/Change Request process to collect problems and change requests from the community. Conduct analysis and refinement of submitted problems and change requests.
When the PSG is operating in parallel with a PDG developing a revision to a product, forward refined PCRs to the PDG for use in revision development.
Maintain liaison with related Conference Forums, related PDGs, related PSGs, and related SGs.
Identify, create, and maintain SISO reference products relating to the balloted products being supported.
Identify and create Product Nominations for additional parts or supplements.

10. Step 6 : Periodic Review Conduct Periodic Reviews
Determine course of action for SISO Product(s)
Reaffirm
Revise
Withdraw

11. PSG Organization Chair Vice-Chair Secretary Technical Area Director
Member
Be registered on the PDG reflector
PDG may establish additional membership requirements with approval from the SAC
All PDG members shall maintain SISO membership.

12. PSG Chair Elected by popular vote (simple majority)
Primary oversight for product development and other activities
Plans and conducts meetings
Ensures voting rules upheld
Appoints members to subgroups
Coordinates meetings, votes, and mediates disagreements
Must be a SISO member

13. PSG Vice Chair Elected by popular vote (simple majority)
Assists the Chair
Conducts meetings in absence of chair
Assumes role of Chair if Chair yields to take a stand on an issue
Must be a SISO member

14. PSG Secretary Elected by popular vote (simple majority)
Documents the activities of the PDG
Conducts meetings when neither the Chair or Vice Chair are able to attend
Compiles minutes at face-to-face and teleconferences
Summarizes discussions for electronic votes
Must be a SISO member

15. PSG Technical Area Director
SAC Representative on the PSG
Monitors PSG activities
Meet SISO Policy
Meet product support requirements
Meet SAC directives
Liaison between SAC and the PSG
Proponent of the PSG to SAC
Appointed by the SAC
If you observe behavior you believe is not consistent with the SISO P&P or BPDSP, don’t stay silent! Raise an objection. Notify the TAD.

16. PSG Meetings Accessible to all SISO members
Agenda published and approved
Chair shall use Robert’s Rules of Order
Attendees may approve informal style
PSGs encouraged to make maximum use of teleconference and reflector meetings
Face-to-Face
Announced at least 30 days in advance
Teleconference
Announced at least 5 days in advance
Reflector
Start date/time and End date/time specified

17. * Abstentions do not count as votes
PSG Voting Rules - 1
Applies to general PSG business and comment resolution
Face-to-face and teleconference Voting
Minimum of a five-person quorum required to conduct a vote
All PSG members present are eligible to vote
PSGs with restrictive memberships (additional qualifications to the ones listed in BPDSP) may establish a quorum requirement (with SAC approval) based on a percentage of members
67% of members present must vote*
75% consensus of members present who vote* required to approve a motion
If a 75% consensus cannot be reached, the issue is moved to an electronic vote.
* Abstentions do not count as votes

18. PSG Voting Rules - 2 Electronic Vote
PSG Chair may require an electronic vote on any issue
PSG Secretary posts a summary of the related discussion on the PSG reflector
Notice of an electronic vote shall be posted at least 10 business days in advance and the voting shall remain open for five days
After announced period of time for discussion, electronic vote is held to allow the complete PSG to vote on the issue
An electronic vote must have at least five (5) voters
PSGs with restrictive memberships (additional qualifications to the ones listed in BPDSP) may establish a quorum requirement based on a percentage of members with SAC approval
Electronic votes are carried by majority (50% plus one) of votes cast

19. PSG Voting Rules - 3
Recall of Face-to-Face or Teleconference vote results
Issues approved by 75% consensus at a face-to-face meeting or teleconference shall be posted to the reflector within five days
PSG members not present for the vote shall have 10 days from the posting to recall the issue
Ten recall petitions shall require an electronic vote
Officer voting
PSG Chair, or acting PSG Chair
Does not vote in face-to-face meetings or teleconferences
Is not counted toward a quorum
PSG Chair may cast the deciding vote in electronic votes
Other PSG officers may vote in face-to-face, teleconference and electronic votes

20. Appeals - 1
PSG member may appeal any decision by the PSG Chair to a vote by the PSG
All PSG votes subject to appeal to the SAC
PSG member may appeal to the SAC, via the TAD, the result of a vote within five days of the vote being posted to the reflector
Classified as procedural or technical
Procedural if PSG member feels the PSG violated SISO, SAC, or PSG rules or principles
Technical if the PSG member believes the approved approach is not the best solution
SAC reviews the appeal and notifies the person who appeals and the PSG Chair of its decision and rationale no later than 30 days after the appeal was filed.
If a resolution to the appeal cannot be reached within 30 days due to the scope of the appeal, the committee Chair will periodically post status of the appeal to the appropriate committee reflector.

21. Appeals - 2
Any member of the PSG may appeal the SAC’s decision on the appeal to the EXCOM
Appealing member shall notify the SAC Chair of the appeal and the reason and rationale of the appeal
SAC Chair will provide the appeal package, the SAC decision and rationale, and the new appeal request to the EXCOM Chair
EXCOM reviews the appeal and notifies the SAC of its decision and rationale no later than 30 days after the appeal was filed
SAC shall notify the person who appeals and the PDG Chair
Decisions by the EXCOM are final.

22. Dominance and Affiliation
All Standards Bodies are having to address the potential of dominance of the standards process
The IEEE has established requirements for the disclosure of affiliation for all IEEE Working Group members
Employer
Parent Company
Any allegation or evidence of dominance within a working group is reported to the IEEE Standards Activity Board
SISO has tradition of levying requirements over and above IEEE
Emphasize these requirements.
Agenda must be published prior to the meeting.
First Item of Business should be to approve the Agenda
The BPDSP requires the Chair to conduct meetings in a professional matter. Roberts Rules of Order is identified as a reference that might be useful to the chair. While many folks equate Roberts Rules as difficult to follow, it does allow for groups to approve an informal style and leave it to the discretion of the Chair to invoke some of the more formal approaches to keep a meeting on track. If the group adopts Roberts, a second order of business is usually to approve the informal style for the meeting.
Third item of business at a meeting should be to include new members in the business. Since membership is based on reflector membership, the PDG should encourage potential new members to complete a roster providing the information necessary for reflector registration. Then the Chair would entertain a motion allowing the new members to participate in all business including voting.
Fourth item approves previous minutes.
Probably need to discuss the concept of a Reflector Meeting

23. Dominance and Affiliation
All members of SISO Groups participating in the standards development process will disclose affiliation at all meetings:
Employer
Parent Company or Prime Contractor
Sponsoring Agency
Program or Product Supported
Emphasize these requirements.
Agenda must be published prior to the meeting.
First Item of Business should be to approve the Agenda
The BPDSP requires the Chair to conduct meetings in a professional matter. Roberts Rules of Order is identified as a reference that might be useful to the chair. While many folks equate Roberts Rules as difficult to follow, it does allow for groups to approve an informal style and leave it to the discretion of the Chair to invoke some of the more formal approaches to keep a meeting on track. If the group adopts Roberts, a second order of business is usually to approve the informal style for the meeting.
Third item of business at a meeting should be to include new members in the business. Since membership is based on reflector membership, the PDG should encourage potential new members to complete a roster providing the information necessary for reflector registration. Then the Chair would entertain a motion allowing the new members to participate in all business including voting.
Fourth item approves previous minutes.
Probably need to discuss the concept of a Reflector Meeting

24. Tools Web Board PDG File Area Teleconference Bridge Tiger Teams
Membership Rosters
Comment Resolution System
Electronic Voting System
Assigned Reviewers
Problem/Change Reports