Governance: Standard (Definitions)

"A rule, policy, principle, or measure either established by an organization or established by a recognized standards body and adopted by that organization. Adherence is expected and mandatory until revoked or revised. Exceptions are allowed provided appropriate process is followed." (Tilak Mitra et al, "SOA Governance", 2008)

"A document that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines, or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context." (Cynthia Stackpole, "PMP® Certification All-in-One For Dummies®", 2011)

"A standard is something considered by an authority or by general consent as a basis of comparison; an approved model. Or it is a rule or principle that is used as a basis for judgment. Standards embody expectations in a formal manner. To standardize something means to cause it to conform to a standard; or to choose or establish a standard for something. (Laura Sebastian-Coleman, "Measuring Data Quality for Ongoing Improvement", 2012)

"Data quality standards are assertions about the expected condition of the data that relate directly to quality dimensions: how complete the data is, how well it conforms to defined rules for validity, integrity, and consistency, as well as how it adheres to defined expectations for presentation." (Laura Sebastian-Coleman, "Measuring Data Quality for Ongoing Improvement", 2012)

"The principles or criteria for consistent, ultimate, superior performance outcomes or for how individuals and organizations conduct themselves (ethics)." (Joan C Dessinger, "Fundamentals of Performance Improvement" 3rd Ed., 2012)

"A core set of common, repeatable best practices and protocols that have been agreed on by a business or industry group. Typically, vendors, industry user groups, and end users collaborate to develop standards based on the broad expertise of a large number of stakeholders. Organizations can leverage these standards as a common foundation and innovate on top of them." (Marcia Kaufman et al, "Big Data For Dummies", 2013)

"A document that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines, or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context." (For Dummies, "PMP Certification All-in-One For Dummies" 2nd Ed., 2013)

"A document that supports a policy. It consists of mandated rules, which support the higher-level policy goals." (Weiss, "Auditing IT Infrastructures for Compliance" 2nd Ed., 2015)

"A document established by an authority, custom, or general consent as a model or example." (Project Management Institute, "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide )", 2017)

"[technical standard:] A specification or requirement or technical characteristic that becomes a norm for a product or process thereby ensuring compatibility." (Robert M Grant, "Contemporary Strategy Analysis 10th Ed", 2018)

"A published specification for, e.g., the structure of a particular file format, recommended nomenclature to use in a particular domain, a common set of metadata fields, etc. Conforming to relevant standards greatly increases the value of published data by improving machine readability and easing data integration." (Open Data Handbook)

" Documented agreements containing technical specifications or other precise criteria to be used consistently as rules, guidelines, or definitions of characteristics, to ensure that materials, products, processes and services are fit for their purpose." (SDMX) 

"Formal, possibly mandatory, set of requirements developed and used to prescribe consistent approaches to the way of working or to provide guidelines (e.g., ISO/IEC standards, IEEE standards, and organizational standards)." [CMMI]

"Mandatory requirements employed and enforced to prescribe a disciplined uniform approach to software development, that is, mandatory conventions and practices are in fact standards." (IEEE Std 983-1986) 

"The metric, specification, gauge, statement, category, segment, grouping, behavior, event or physical product sample against which the outputs of a process are compared and declared acceptable or unacceptable." (ASQ)