Standards, Agility, and Engineering

Parts of the software and IT engineering community harbor many misconceptions associated with standards, especially process standards. The most common are that standards are rigid, obsolete, and plain boring. Standards are also perceived as being the antithesis of agility. Engineering involves choosing the right tool, which implies an understanding of both the tools and the problem. Such behavior is agile. Using the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) definition as a baseline, standards are "guideline documentation that reflects agreements on products, practices, or operations by nationally or internationally recognized industrial, professional, trade associations or governmental bodies." Standards are referred to as guideline documents because they are not compulsory unless mandated so by an individual, an organization, or the market. They are agreements because they often reflect a specific level of consensus.