JISC and the JISC advisory services provide advice on a wide range of standards and best practices which seek to ensure that project deliverables are platform and application-independent, accessibility, interoperable and are suitable for re-purposing.
The standards and best practices which JISC advisory service recommend have been developed with these aims in mind.
Although use of recommended standards and best practices is encouraged, there may be occasions when this is not possible:
In many cases standards will be mature and expertise readily available. The selection of the standards to be deployed can be easily made. What should be done when this isn't the case?
In light of the challenges which may be faced when wishing to make use of recommended standards and best practices it is suggested that projects use a matrix approach to resolving these issues.
Area | Your Comments |
Standard | |
How mature is the standard? | |
Does the standard provide required functionality? | |
Implementation | |
Are authoring tools which support the standard readily available? | |
Are viewing tools which support the standard readily available? | |
Organisation | |
Is the organisation culture suitable for deployment of new standards? | |
Are there strategies in place to continue development in case of staffing changes? |
Individual projects will need to formulate their own matrix which covers issues relevant to their particular project, funding, organisation, etc.
This matrix approach is not intended to provide a definitive solution to the selection of standards. Rather it is intended as a tool which can assist projects when they go through the process of choosing the standards they intend to use. It is envisaged that projects will document their comments on issues such as those listed above. These comments should inform a discussion within the project team, and possibly with the project's advisory or steering group. Once a decision has been made the rationale for the decision should be documented. This will help to ensure that the reasonings are still available if project teams members leave.
For examples of how projects have addressed the selection of standards can see: