About the SAC
The SISO Standards Activity Committee (SAC) has oversight for SISO product development and reports directly to the Executive Committee (EXCOM). It has the following major areas of responsibility:
  • Provides overall management of product development and support
  • Promotes standardization of technologies required to enable interoperable simulations for the M&S community
  • Ensures that products meet the intent of Product Nominations that they address
  • Ensures that developed products are viable for the majority of the SISO community
  • Provide oversight of SISO Groups focused on standards development and standards support
  • Oversee development and support of IEEE standards on simulation interoperability
  • Liaison with ISO/IEC JTC1/SC24 WG8 and NATO Modeling and Simulation Group
The SAC charters Product Development Groups (PDG's) and sponsors Study Groups (SG) to produce most of SISO's Products. SISO Products include Standards, Guidance, Reference and Administrative Products. SISO Standards and SISO Guidance Products are held to the highest level of accreditation and are developed in accordance with the SISO Six Step Process as outlined in the SISO Policies and Procedures.

If you're interested in SISO products or how you can get involved, please contact the SAC (see information below) or join the SISO Ballot Pool!

PDGs are initiated through Product Nominations (PN) which must be approved by the EXCOM. If you are interested in joining a PDG you must:   

  • be a SISO member
  • be registered with SISO's Discussion Board
  • submit appropriate affiliation data for each PDG you wish to join,
  • subscribe to the particular PDG discussion (reflector)  
MEMBERSHIP

The members of the SAC are elected by eligible voters of SISO in accordance with the Election and Vacancies Procedures. Members of the SAC shall maintain membership in SISO through the entire term of their membership on the SAC in accordance with SISO Membership. 

There are eleven elected members of the SAC, ten elected at-large, plus the elected Vice Chair of the CC. The Chair of the SAC may, with the approval of the other elected SAC members, appoint up to four additional SISO members should such appointment be considered in the best interest of SISO. The total number of SAC members, up to fifteen, is based on the number of Product Development Groups, Product Support Groups, Study Groups and liaisons with other Standards Development Organizations. All members of the SAC, elected and appointed, are voting members.

The ten at-large members are elected to two-year staggered terms with approximately one-half of these terms expiring each year.
About the Officer Positions

The SAC elects from its membership a Chair, a Vice Chair, and a Secretary, each of whom serves a term of one year commencing at the end of the Fall SIW. SAC officers are chosen within thirty days of election during each annual election cycle. Members eligible for office, and members eligible to vote are those that will be on the SAC for the coming year. 

The Standards Activity Committee (SAC) Chair, Paul Lowe, paul.n.lowe@boeing.com  oversees the SAC as it carries out its oversight responsibilities for SISO product development and support. The SAC Chair reports to, and serves as an ex-officio member of the Executive Committee (EXCOM). The Chair ensures that SAC members are selected to oversee various Technical Areas and other standards related activities.
 

The Vice Chair serves as an ex-officio member of the Conference Committee for the coordination of Product Nominations and coordination for Product Development Group reports to Forums. The Vice Chair assists the Chair as required and conducts meetings when the Chair is unable to attend or must excuse him/herself from Chair activities.

 

The SAC Chair or Vice Chair serves on the IEEE-CS SAB. The SAC Chair will serve as liaison or appoint from the SISO membership a liaison to any international standards organizations with which SISO establishes a relationship.

 

The Secretary is responsible for the documentation of SAC activities. This includes publication of meeting minutes and maintaining lists of action items and rosters of attendees. The Secretary may also send out mailings of minutes, papers, and drafts to the committee.
RESPONSIBILITIES

The SAC manages the product development process (described in Product Development). The SAC establishes criteria for the review of Product Nominations and development of SISO products. The criteria are developed to reflect the SISO Vision Statement and Strategic Plan along with current community priorities and will be refined and reviewed at regular intervals.

The SAC is responsible for Product Nomination (PN) processing. For approved PNs, the SAC forms or expands PDGs to work on the approved project, assigns interim chairs for new PDGs, approves and manages development schedules for PDG products, tracks PDG progress and provides management where needed, exercises authority over PDGs and dissolves PDGs as required. The SAC approves all SISO products under their cognizance before their submission to the EXCOM.

 

In determining PDG membership, the SAC coordinates with the CC regarding the identification of appropriate individuals from constituent communities to serve on PDGs. The SAC also coordinates with the CC by reporting PDG progress to relevant Forums. This allows Forums to provide feedback as standardized products are developed.

 

The SAC also manages the product support process (described in Product Development). Upon completion of a SISO product or a SISO sponsored product requiring long-term support, the SAC and the product developers will develop a PSG Terms of Reference to transition responsibility for the completed product(s). The SAC is responsible for exercising authority over PSGs.  While the SAC will serve as the IEEE Interpretations Committee required by the IEEE for those SISO products balloted by the IEEE, the PSG(s) for these standards will conduct the analysis and prepare the interpretations for the SAC. The PSG offers continuity and a place for developers and users of the standards to     

  1. Ask questions concerning the language used in the standard, the intention or result meant by a particular action
  2. Request an explanation of the reasons behind what the standard says
  3. Seek support 
  4. Register change requests for subsequent versions of the product.

 

SAC members oversee one or more groups as determined by the SAC. SAC members are responsible for ensuring the groups meet the requirements of SISO-ADM-002-2008.1 and its subordinate administrative products. SAC members are responsible for ensuring the quality of documents from groups which they oversee. Detailed checklists for performing this duty will be found in SISO-ADM-010-20XX.

 

The SAC may identify and nominate to the EXCOM any member of SISO in recognition of specific or continuing service to the activities and groups under the purview of the SAC.