Government/Military Trends
New JTA Referenced Standards Collection Compliance Made Easier
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Defense spending is over $400 billion today and much of that is spent on domestic products and services. On an information technology (IT) level, in order to obtain a piece of the "IT pie," one must become Joint Technical Architecture (JTA) certified and comply with the JTA initiatives set out by the Department of Defense (DoD). Specified within these initiatives is an array of adopted industry specifications and standards - making identifying, obtaining and complying a challenge. To assist in compliance with this document, IHS has recently released the JTA Referenced Standards Collection, an electronic compilation of all versions of the JTA document and quick-link to full text of most of the standards it specifies.
With nearly 1000 standards listed in the JTA from numerous Standard Developing Organizations (SDOs), each user is required to first identify, then distinguish between the standards - those that are relevant and not - obtain the relevant documents that pertain to their specific conditions and ultimately, apply them. This can be a long, arduous process. In addition, the quantity of standards mandated in the JTA is constantly increasing, as the document itself is dynamic in nature. "The JTA is a living, breathing document that will continue to change as the IT marketplace changes," says Dave McBarron, IHS Director of Systems Engineering.
JTA, now in Version 4.0 3, is the DoD's effort to help in achieving weapon systems interoperability requirements and to support affordability and an open systems approach to weapon system design. Implementation of the JTA is required for all planned changes to an operational capability that produces, uses or exchanges information in any electronic form. It specifies a set of primarily commercial specifications and standards that cover information processing, information transfer, content, format, and security. The JTA Referenced Standards Collection is designed to help meet these operability challenges.
"In my experience with obtaining JTA certification for IHS, it was extremely difficult to determine exactly what standards applied to our situation," comments McBarron. "Once I knew what standards we needed for compliance, had I not worked for IHS, it would have been time-consuming and difficult to obtain them." Currently, the JTA Referenced Standards Collection contains:
- All JTA Document versions, including:
JTA Version 4.0, 17 July 2002 (Not authorized for acquisition until promulgation memo signed)
JTA Version 3.1, 31 Mar 2000
JTA Version 3.0,15 Nov 1999
JTA Version 2.0, 26 May 1998
JTA Version 1.0, 22 Aug 1996
- IHS TechConnect™ - a link to the referenced standards
- Industry Standards and Government Standards - full text
Today, approximately 60% of the standards referenced in the JTA are available in the collection to provide users with a comprehensive, single source for this vital information. The SDO's currently represented include:
- American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
- Electrical Industries Alliance (EIA)
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
- International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
- International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
- International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
- International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
- Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
- Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)
- Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers (SMPTE)
- Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA)
The government and military specifications and standards assembled in the set are:
- Military Standards (MIL-STD)
- Military Performance Specifications (MIL-PRF)
- Federal Information Processing Standards and Publications (FIPS-PUB)
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization Standardisation Agreements (NATO STANAG)
"We intend to continue to increase the standards contained in this collection and keep it updated as standards from additional SDO's are being reviewed and accepted by the JTA Development Group," states Alana Smith, IHS JTA Product Manager. "Because of our own experiences in the certification process, we knew there was a need to make this information more accessible and readily available to IT designers and other users and, simplify the compliance process for them."
The benefits of the JTA Referenced Standards Collection are many. Some of them include:
Increased Productivity. With instant access to referenced documents using IHS TechConnect™, a powerful tool that links military and commercial specs and standards referenced in the JTA to the full-text of the actual documents, search time is reduced by 75% or more.
Reduced Cost. By accessing only the specifications and standards needed, the JTA Referenced Standards Collection is truly a customized collection containing only those documents mandated in the JTA.
Save Time. Link your internal information with IHS data. Achieve integration by linking between your internal technical documents and the specifications and standards contained in the JTA Collection - another advantage of the IHS TechConnect™ linking capability.
"It would have been nice to have had the JTA Referenced Standards Collection available to me when I was struggling to fulfill the mandated requirements," remarks McBarron.
The JTA Referenced Standards Collection is a revolutionary tool that will assist users in keeping current with constantly changing government mandated IT standards and technology. IHS has compiled all the important documents needed for JTA fulfillment in a product that makes it easy-to-retrieve and even easier to comply with the DoD. 4
3 JTA version 4.0 is an unapproved version
4Primary Source: IHS www.ihs.com