What Kinds of Enterprise Integration Standards Apply ?


Standards and Models developed by Industry and Government bodies fall into 3 categories:

Proprietary Standards
Most companies involved in enterprise integration establish a set of proprietary standards, Models and Methodologies which they use internally. A number of these proprietary standards are discussed in the "Methodology" section of this website, but unless they have become "de-facto" industry standards (like some Microsoft standards) they will not be listed here. In some cases, proprietary standards may be "promoted" to consensus standards (for example Ethernet was initially a proprietary Xerox standard, but was eventually converted to an IEEE standard).
Consensus Standards
Industry bodies such as IEEE or ISA are the source of industrial "consensus" standards where industry representatives meet and agree on common approaches. In some cases, a standard may gain such wide acceptance that its use is required by various government or even supra-government bodies through regulations or even laws. For this reason, there is often government involvement in the establishment of industrial standards.
Regulatory Standards
Government bodies issue national standards, regulations, and in some cases, even laws which govern design, implementation and use of control and information systems and networks. Government bodies also support the development of international standards which they then adopt as national Regularory Standards. This is done because of the benefits such standards bring to their nations in terms of access to international markets and development of technology at home. Unfortunately, in some developing countries, national Regulatory Standards may also be used to limit access of foreign products to their national markets. The World Trade Organization (WTO) has had some success in discouraging this practice.

by Gary Rathwell © reserved

Back to PERA Home Page