The Realities Of Committee Work in Standards Development

For Standards Development Organizations (SDOs), committee work is a key foundation to developing and maintaining the technical benchmarks that industries and governments rely on globally. Committees play an essential role in creating guidelines that ensure safety, interoperability, and quality across sectors. However, behind the scenes, these committees face a multitude of challenges—from managing diverse international viewpoints and reconciling conflicting interests to navigating intricate technical details and adhering to rigorous timelines. In our experience, these challenges are not unique to committee work within standards bodies. Throughout our twenty years working with US state legislatures, parliaments, and standards bodies, we have noted that committee work shares several similarities between them.