Ballot Status: IEEE P1471, Recommended Practice for Architectural Description

The following note was sent by IEEE AWG chair, Basil Sherlund, to all IEEE AWG participants and reviewers, 26 March 1999.

All,

The first round balloting for P1471 Recommended Practice for Architectural Description has closed. The results were:

Of 92 eligible voters:

70 ballots represent a 76% return (greater than the 75% required for passage)

64 votes represents a 78% Affirmative (greater than the 75% required for passage)

This is excellent news, it means that P1471 met the passing criteria on the first ballot! The ballot resolution committee is reviewing the ballots and is planning a recirculation with some changes in response to the first-round ballots. The negative votes fell into three main categories:

1. Editorial comments that were given as binding comments. We see no difficulties in resolving these.
2. Objections to the definition of "architecture." This was the largest single group of objections, though it was only about five negative ballots overall.
3. Objections to the interface of the recommended practice with the 12207 standard. We believe these issues are resolvable after some clarification with the management board.

There were a few additional objections on other bases, such as specific shall requirements and usages, but these fell into no broad pattern.

We plan to work through the objections (and non-binding comments) relating to 1 and 3 above as quickly as possible. We are also looking at how to come to a final resolution on the definition.

Everybody who has worked on this project can feel proud of how far it has gone. The quality of the work and seriousness of previous reviews can be seen in the highly positive first ballot. We should have P1471 advanced through the ballot process quickly.