There is an evolution in the process used by standards-development
organizations (SDOs) and this is changing the prevailing standards
development activity (SDA) for information and communications technology
(ICT). The process is progressing from traditional SDA modes, typically
involving the selection from many candidate, existing alternative
components, into the crafting of standards that include a substantial
design component (SSDC), or 'anticipatory' standards. SSDC require
increasingly important roles from organizational players as well as
SDOs. Few theoretical frameworks exist to understand these emerging
processes. This project conducted archival analysis of SDO documents for
a selected subset of web-services (WS) standards taken from publicly
available sources including minutes of meetings, proposals, drafts and
recommendations. This working paper provides a deeper understanding of
SDAs, the roles played by different organizational participants and the
compliance with SDO due process requirements emerging from public policy
constraints, recent legislation and standards accreditation
requirements. This research is influenced by a recent theoretical
framework that suggests viewing the new standards-setting processes as a
complex interplay among three forces: sense-making, design, and
negotiation (DSN). The DSN model provides the framework for measuring
SDO progress and therefore understanding future generations of standards
development processes. The empirically grounded results are useful
foundation for other SDO modeling efforts
