Managing changes to the digital standards catalogue

To make a request for a change or addition to the digital standards catalogue, a sponsor from a government agency (or a supplier to government):

1. prepares a brief case for inclusion of the addition to the digital standards catalogue
2. maps the proposed inclusion to the reference taxonomies. These can be aligned to more than 1 taxonomy and more than 1 category in each taxonomy. For each mapping, include:
   • a proposed status (mandatory)
   • guidance on usage (optional)
   • the name, description and a URL to the content.
3. emails the request to the Government Enterprise Architecture (GEA) team at GEA@dia.govt.nz.

Name, description and URL details required

Name

The name should be exactly the same as the name used by the responsible standards body. By standards body we mean the organisation who produces, owns and approves content being added to the digital standards catalogue.

Description

The description should include the following information:

Standards type:

The type of content, for example:

• AoG product and service [NZ]
• government standard [NZ] or any other jurisdiction
• government framework [NZ] or any other jurisdiction
• government guideline [NZ] or any other jurisdiction, government standard [NZ] or any other jurisdiction, government toolkit [NZ] or any other jurisdiction, international framework
• international guideline
• international standard
• international standard profile [NZ] or any other jurisdiction.

Status:

The status set by the responsible standards body.

Standards body:

The responsible standards body, that is, the organisation that produces, owns and approves content being added to the digital standards catalogue. Standards body examples are:

• Archives NZ — standards that relate to the Records Management Act
• Australian Standard/New Zealand Standard (AS/NZS) — joint Australian and New Zealand standards
• International Standards Organization (ISO) — standards developed and agreed internationally
• Ministry of Health (NZ) (MoH) — standards to be used within the NZ health sector
• National Institute of Science and Technology (USA) (NIST) — standards for the USA
• Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) — technical protocols for the exchange of information.

NZ Government lead agency:

The lead agency for the standard, for example, Archives NZ is the lead agency for several ISO standards related to records management.

Description:

A brief description of the standard to provide context and aid discovery. This can include:

• superseded standards that were replaced by this standard
• standards that have replaced the one being described
• alternative standards such as an OASIS standard that is also published as an ISO standard. The OASIS standard will be freely available. The ISO standard needs to be purchased.

URL

The URL should be a link to a no-cost version of the content if possible, or to a site from which the standards can be previewed and purchased.

Requests by a sponsor to make an addition to the digital standards catalogue are reviewed at the monthly Government Enterprise Architecture Group (GEAG) meetings.

Ideally, additions will be reviewed and approved at the first meeting they are tabled at.  

If an addition is not approved and:

• the decision is final, the GEAG secretariat advises the sponsor
  
• the GEAG members need further information, the GEAG secretariat advises the sponsor and invites them to make their case at the next GEAG meeting.

Following the Government Enterprise Architecture Group (GEAG) meeting, any approved additions to the digital standards catalogue are added to the catalogue by the GEAG secretariat. 

This involves updating the Government digital standards catalogue workbook (Excel 574KB) and uploading the updated spreadsheet to Digital.govt.nz.  

In the near future, the digital standards catalogue will be made available as a machine readable data set on Data.govt.nz, along with the reference taxonomies.