Revising Standards
A standard has a validity period of ten years from the date of IEEE SA Standards Board approval. Amendments that offer minor revisions or extensions to the standard, and corrigenda that makes corrections to the standard can be developed and balloted, but the creation of amendments and corrigenda does not affect the ten-year validity rule. At the end of this period, one of two things has to happen: revision or withdrawal. If no action is taken, the standard will be moved to inactive-reserved status. For further information, please see the FAQs.
If the standard or its amendments are out of date, then a revision needs to be processed. A revision can make specific changes to the document, or it can revise the entire content. However, a revision does open up the whole standard to comment, and all comments must be addressed.
A Redline Version of a Standard, which indicates the changes made during the standards revision process between the active standard and its previous version, can be made available. Additions, deletions, and other formatting and/or content revisions are clearly displayed as underlined and strikethrough texts, ensuring all changes made between the two documents are quickly and easily identified.
Finally, the standard can be withdrawn. This requires a ballot with 50% return and 75% approval (this number is traditionally lower due to the difficulty of achieving a rate of return). Standards Committee should be careful to ensure that the standard should truly be withdrawn, especially if work is ongoing in the Working Group.