What is a Study Group?

Per SISO-ADM-002-2011 a Standing Study Group may be established to represent a specific community or national group, to mature a potential standard, or potentially to provide support to open-source software.

Study Groups are established to consider specific issues and to provide recommendations concerning proposed courses of action. The SISO Study Group mechanism is intended to provide a wide range of flexibility. As examples, a study group may be formed to define key terminology, recommend modifications to SISO processes, or generate a plan for (or an initial prototype of) a proposed SISO Product.

Each Study Group operates under a specific Terms of Reference that identifies the issues and questions to address. The Terms of Reference designates the leadership of the Study Group, the form of the outputs expected, and the schedule for the generation of these outputs.

Normally, the life span of a Study Group will not exceed one year.  Depending on the time phasing of the Group's formation, a Study Group will ordinarily conduct an organizational session at one workshop and outbrief at the next workshop.

For more information, see Operations.

Terms of Reference
View SG, SSG, PSG  Terms of Reference (TORs)  in the File Library. 
Create A New Study Group

To propose a new study group, complete the SISO-TOR Study Group Template available in the Templates folder of SISO’s Digital Library.  Email the draft document to the Chair of the proposed SISO Committee with oversight for consideration.
Study Groups and Standing Study Groups

CBMS SSG - Cloud-based Modelling & Simulation
Over the past few years, a significant number of SISO members have been engaged in M&S activities in the cloud. These and other early practitioners have produced practices and hard-learned lessons that would be valuable to others. The purpose of this Standing Study Group is to identify and document the existing M&S in the cloud activities, document best practices, highlight lessons learned and identify where potential standards in order to facilitate adoption by other practitioners. The Standing Study Group is organized into 3 different teams looking at cloud capabilities, models, and architecture.

ENGTAM SSG - Exploration of Next Generation Technology Applications to Modeling and Simulation
The ENGTAM SSG will execute these group-specific tasks:
  - Explore the latest industry technology trends and available solutions, specifically focused on their applicability to the M&S domain.
  - Assist the M&S domain in staying informed of recent technology advancements and understand their impacts to our current and future implementations.
  - Consider other architecture quality requirements and management requirements such as risk, cost, and long term sustainability, among others.

Game IconS&WG SSG – Simulation and Wargaming
With the current focus on wargaming within the U.S. DOD, other departments, and NATO, there is an interest in creating and exploring modern efforts of applying simulation and other digital tools to the traditionally analog process of wargaming.  With its background in simulation, and the long history of combat modeling that is part of the Live-Virtual-Constructive tradition, it is appropriate that SISO be a sponsor organization for a Standing Study Group exploring the topic of simulation and wargaming for the purpose of identifying best practices; models, methods and tools; and identifying areas where it may be appropriate to develop standards for/with the community.

Simulation Australasia SSG 
The Australasia Standing Study Group (SISO Australasia) was established to liaise with and inform SISO of the needs of the Australasian simulation community.  The SSG was established by the SISO Executive Committee.

Blocks icon SIM-SCALE SG - Simulation Scalability
Improvements in technology have paved the way for increasing the performance and scalability of real-time, high fidelity simulation environments, but new interoperability standards are required for the M&S community to fully leverage these modern approaches.  The lead proponents for this proposed Study Group have developed a new set of interoperability APIs and interfaces that could serve as the basis for a new “Scalable Simulation Framework (SSF)” standard.  In addition, there may be alternative frameworks that could serve as a basis for a new SSF. These will be evaluated along with the currently proposed framework.

The goals of the Study Group will be to:

  • Develop a common understanding of the problem of scalability among distributed simulation applications.
  • Evaluate the proposed design and initial API draft to determine whether they can serve as a starting point for a SISO standards development effort.
  • Evaluate potential alternatives that may be presented to the Study Group to determine if another design would be a better starting point for an SSF SISO Standard.
  • Help refine and develop the SSF concept and initial interface drafts with the goal of building their maturity before kicking off a formal SISO PDG Product Development Group

Game IconXR-INTEROP SG​ - XR Interoperability Standards​
The challenges and issues faced by what is typically known as AR/VR (Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality) technology covers a broad range of technical, operational, interoperability and social problems that must be addressed in order for society and the M&S community to benefit from the potential of AR/VR solutions. For the purposes of this Study Group the term “XR (eXperiential Reality) Interoperability” will be applied to represent and reflect a holistic approach centered on the collaborative exchange of information necessary to convey realistic experiences, which is needed to fully realize the power and potential of an “XR World”.