New IETF Standards Track Discussion BOF (newtrk) Thursday, November 13 at 1530-1730 ================================== CHAIRS: Scott Bradner DESCRIPTION: The consensus in the problem working group is that the current IETF 3- stage standards track described in RFC 2026 [RFC2026] is not working as originally intended. The draft problem statement document says: "The current hierarchy of Proposed, Draft and Full Standard maturity levels for specifications is no longer being used in the way that was envisioned when the stratification was originally proposed. In practice, the IETF currently has a one-step standards process that subverts the IETF's preference for demonstrating effectiveness through running code in multiple interoperable implementations and compresses the process that previously allowed specifications to mature as experience was gained with actual implementations:" The draft document then goes on to list 4 observations: 1/ few documents actually progress after being published as PS 2/ there is a perception that the IESG raised the quality requirement 3/ in spite of the raised quality requirement, running code is not required 4/ there seems to be a reinforcing feedback loop involved: vendors implement and deploy PS documents so the IESG tries to make the PS documents better The draft problem document concludes that the 3-stage process is excessive. This BOF will discuss the observation that the current IETF 3-stage standards track is not working and discuss options for different standards track processes. Expected output of BOF: 1/ criteria for declaring "success" for a new IETF standards track 2/ next steps AGENDA: 1/ description of current IETF Standards Track 2/ observations from problem working group 3/ what other SDOs do 4/ proposals for alternate standards track processes 5/ what would define success in a revised IETF Standards track 6/ open discussion Reading List: draft-ietf-problem-issue-statement-04.txt draft-dawkins-pstmt-twostage-01.txt draft-bradner-ietf-stds-trk-00.txt draft-iesg-hardie-outline-00.txt draft-loughney-what-standards-00.txt