11.2.1 Influence the Process and the Product

Many organizations that are influenced by standards want to have a say in what those standards look like, what they cover, and what they require. Companies recognize that standards can be beneficial to them, but also that a poorly written standard, one with incorrect, insufficient, or excessive requirements can be detrimental to them and to their industry. By contributing skills to the production of a standard, a company can ensure that its needs and views are considered in the development process, that the standard is reflective of current state of the art in that field, and that the level of detail and the requirements in the standard are such that the standard is a help and not a hindrance. One of the easiest ways to get what you want is to volunteer to help produce it.

Sometimes, a person is assigned by his or her organization to participate in one or more SDOs as a way of protecting the interests of the organization. Some companies fund engineers who work almost entirely on the development and updating of standards that affect aspects of their industry.

11.2.2 Opportunity to Learn

Working on the development or updating of a standard requires a thorough understanding of the product or process in question, or a willingness to develop that understanding. It provides one of the best ways to further the understanding of the details, and of the standard as a whole. It demands an appreciation of the particular requirements being written, as well as their relation to other requirements. Details need to be worked out. The text must be clear and unambiguous, sometimes requiring a number of iterations to achieve consensus. What is clear to one person may not be clear to another, or two people may agree that something is clear, but have different understandings of what it (clearly) means. The standard needs to be reviewed to ensure the accuracy of cross references, and consistency between sections and with other standards that are referenced.

Working through all of these details results in a familiarity with the standard that is difficult to achieve in any other way. Thus, those working on a standard typically come to understand it better than nearly anyone else, including an appreciation of its history, the background and technical basis for requirements, and relationships of that standard with other requirements and standards.

11.2.3 Credibility

Usually more people and organizations use and depend upon a standard than are involved in its development. Being on a standards committee is generally recognized as reflecting a higher level of understanding and qualification in the field than that of the general user. While some standards committees are easy to join, and almost all are open to public attendance, taking time to meet with other specialists in the field and to work through technical issues and the details of wording results in a familiarity with the standard and an understanding of it beyond what the casual user will achieve. Volunteers are generally respected for their involvement in standards developing organizations.

11.2.4 Personal Satisfaction

Helping to develop a product that is important, and knowing that one's efforts have contributed to the quality of that product and have wide ranging effects, can be very rewarding. This satisfaction is manifested every time the person who has worked on the standard uses it or works with it, including helping others to understand and use it.

11.2.5 Networking and Career Benefits

The process of developing a standard typically brings together a number of people, including many of those with the greatest amount of theoretical and practical knowledge in the field. There are often subspecialties within the field, and the various parties involved have the chance to share ideas and learn from each other.

For example, the AIAA Standard for Space Systems – Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels (COPVs), includes requirements for design, fabrication, testing, inspection, operation, and maintenance of COPVs. It is applicable to COPVs used for a wide range of pressurized applications, including hazardous and nonhazardous, liquid, and gas, used on both spacecraft and launch vehicles. While a number of people have spent much of their careers working in this area, even they have specialized and do not have the full range of knowledge of these products. Some are materials experts specializing in material physical properties such as strength and fracture characteristics, while others are particularly concerned with materials compatibility. Some are heavily involved in the fabrication process, including how liners are produced or how resin is applied to the fibers and how the fibers are applied to the liners. Others specialize in testing and inspecting the COPVs. Getting involved in developing a standard gives the participant the opportunity to interact with others who have different specialties within the same sphere of work.

By meeting periodically to develop and to update the standard for COPVs, those most interested in these products across the industry have a chance to become acquainted and work with each other.

In addition, whether employed by someone else or working for oneself, the knowledge that has been acquired working on codes and standards will be useful. Being a member of a standards committee can be a definite selling point for consultants, as can having such a member in one's employ. An engineer seeking the next opportunity for advancement, whether inside a company or in moving to another, is likely to gain credibility through having helped develop a standard that the company regularly employs. And finally, the networking opportunities of working on a standards committee can be tremendous. It has been recognized for a number of years that a significant percentage of jobs are filled without formal search or advertisement. Word of mouth is a highly effective means of making contacts.

11.3.1 Company Standards

Most large organizations utilize both internally developed and external standards. A person who is recognized within an organization as holding a reasonable level of expertise in a given area can often get involved in the improvement of standards simply by providing ideas or volunteering to work on a particular aspect of a company policy or other document. Companies depend on their standards as a means of ensuring consistency of products, to promote efficiency, limit liability, and for a variety of other benefits. Work on these documents, whether their development or maintenance, is often considered to be a less than ideal assignment, yet it often provides a way for an employee to better understand the company and how it does things, to interact with management, and to make real improvements in a company's products or processes. It has a further potential to lead to assignments on voluntary consensus standards as well.

11.3.2 Interest Group Standards

Work on interest group standards such as those of the Expansion Joint Manufacturers Association or the Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers Association may be considered prestigious assignments, yet if an employee has proved willing and able to work on company standards, there may be opportunities here as well. The more qualified the employee, the better the chance of involvement. That said, some standards in this realm have been developed as much for marketing purposes as for technical ones, and once in existence they may remain fairly static for long periods of time.

11.3.3 Voluntary Consensus Standards (VCS)

The vast numbers of VCS with requirements for openness and for a range of representation on their developing organizations offer the greatest number of opportunities for standards participation. Thousands of standards require tens of thousands of people to develop and maintain them. In addition, because most of them follow the requirements of the American National Standards Institute for VCS, opportunities are widely available for interested parties. Thus a person or organization wishing to participate generally can do so. Even a person who is not a full committee member can have a significant influence on the development of a standard. In addition, many of these standards are the very same ones that provide the greatest prestige, opportunities for learning, and networking opportunities. Yet, they often lack willing workers who can dedicate sufficient time and thought to keep the standards current.

11.3.4 Jurisdictional Standards

Opportunities for direct participation in development of jurisdictional standards (also referred to as regulations) are often somewhat more limited. When technical standards are embodied in laws, they are often created by employees of the agency assigned to develop implementing regulations for particular laws. That said, there is still often a need for outside expertise, as it is difficult for a governmental agency to maintain all the talent needed to create effective technical regulations. Further, once the standards have been written, they must almost all go through a public review period. This is a period during which any interested party can provide comments and suggestions on the published document, and have them addressed, prior to it going into effect.

11.4.1 Finding a Committee

Often finding an appropriate committee to join is as easy as noting what standard you most often use in your work. Or it may involve identifying a standard that you would like to understand better. It may revolve around identifying the committee members you would like to work with. The process of joining a subcommittee often involves visiting several to determine which offers the best overall fit.

If you have selected a particular standard you would like to get involved with, there is still often more to think about. Standards committees often have subcommittees that perform most of the work. For example, currently the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) publishes approximately 550 technical standards, developed and maintained by about 5000 technical experts. Hardly a week goes by without an ASME committee meeting, and it is common for these meetings to involve many subcommittees, addressing different aspects of the standard.

While being a member of a higher level committee allows one to vote, it is the subcommittees that generally develop the actual text that goes into the standard. The ASME B31.3 Process Piping Code Committee, for example, has subcommittees on materials, design, high pressure, and other areas, such that eight or ten subcommittees are actually meeting twice a year. Subcommittee meetings are normally concurrent, so a person is forced to decide which one to attend. If the member or organization has interests in multiple areas, it can be a juggling act to be at each meeting at the right time (the members understand this, however, and work to accommodate each other).

11.4.2 Making the Choice

Personal interest, employer interests, personal benefits, and opportunities to contribute all go into making the decision about which committee to join. Sometimes, the decision revolves around which committee needs help the most. Even if there is not a perfect match, however, many of the same benefits are achieved. And as implied above, a decision to join one committee or subcommittee does not prevent one from contributing to others on an intermittent basis or through the public comment period.