All standards with the catalogue are expected to be initiated, developed, reviewed and archived in accordance with the processes detailed in this section. To be published in our Standards and Guidelines Catalogue as approved, the new or revised standard must be approved as described in this section. Staff, partners and suppliers developing or revising standards for the catalogue should use this section to guide their project plans.
All standards are expected to be initiated and developed in accordance with basic business case principles. This includes documented problem and opportunity definition, benefits assessment, assessment of the strategic fit, options assessment and identification of the preferred option.
A project plan is required for development of the preferred option (ie, the intended scope of the standard), which amongst other matters describes key resources including the sponsor, assurance, consultation, engagement, and key development risks and interdependencies. The plan should also identify the requirement to comply with the relevant standard drafting principles, and the requirement to confirm the drafted standard delivers against the problem statement and benefits assessment. It is important that documentation of the development process is complete and well organised to make approvals more efficient.
As part of the development process, prior to approval, an implementation or change management plan should be developed. This plan sets out the following:
For more information including templates for the project plan please contact the assurance team in Transport Services’ Programmes & Standards on standards@nzta.govt.nz
All standards must be approved through the appropriate delegations, including interim standards (technical advice notes, technical memorandums, etc). Presently there is a two-committee process for approval recommendations, contact us for details of the meeting dates and requirements. For minor updates or when there is unanticipated urgency contact the same email address, and we will work collaboratively with you for a reasonable solution.
Note: The approval recommendation process will change to a single committee beginning 1 July 2024.
All standards submitted for recommendation and approval must be accompanied by the Approval recommendation template for standards form below, signed by the sponsor, and the final draft of the standard. The effort in completing this form should be scaled to the complexity or significance of the standard or change. As a guide, for minor revisions or interim standards, effort should be less than an hour and no more than two hours. For new standards or medium complexity revisions, the effort should be no more than four hours, and significant or complex new standards between 4 to 8 hours. These efforts assume that the development process has been well documented.
Approval recommendation template for standards form [DOCX, 440 KB]
Our development and approval process will be changing in 2024. Beginning 1 July 2024 we will introduce a step for any new standard development not currently underway at that date to be included on the Standards and Guidelines Work Programme prior to starting work on the standard. Standards not included on the work programme will not be recommended for approval. (Urgent-unanticipated standards will be accommodated).
The purpose of this step is to make sure that we are working on the right standards, provide visibility of our work programme across the sector, and to make sure the standards development process is set up for success (appropriate assurance, consultation, implementation planning, etc).
For most standards (except the most complex/significant) submission to a recommending committee will be no longer be required, if conformance with the implementation plan agreed at the work programme step is well documented and the standard conforms with drafting requirements.
For more information, please contact the assurance team in Transport Services Programmes & Standards team on standards@nzta.govt.nz
