SMG 2 has always treated its working methods using a pragmatic approach. Working methods were discussed and agreed when problems arose or in anticipation of problems, and were adapted when practical experiences were made. | GSM and UMTS The Creation of Global Mobile Communication Edited by Friedhelm Hillebrand Copyright 2001 John Wiley Sons Ltd ISBNs 0-470-84322-5 Hardback 0-470-845546 Electronic Chapter 20 Working Methods Ansgar Bergmann1 SMG2 has always treated its working methods using a pragmatic approach. Working methods were discussed and agreed when problems arose or in anticipation of problems and were adapted when practical experiences were made. The fora to elaborate working methods were Ad-hoc groups of the SMG plenary and of working parties PT SMG 3 SMG co-ordination group 4 A proper subgroup on working methods WOME was established in March 1998 at SMG 25 . Papers on working methods were agreed and maintained since the 1980s but a permanent document GSM was only approved in 1995. The working methods were agreed in SMG as a complement to the ETSI rules of procedure which fix for example the rules for membership elections and voting. Major areas for working methods relate to Ways to write specifications in particular the usage of description techniques for example formal description techniques Handling of documents Phased approach Structure of specifications Change Request CR procedures Work item management. Who Uses the Specifications The main goal of SMG 3GPP is to produce specifications. Working methods are a means to achieve this goal. In order to understand what a good specification is it must first be understood who uses the specification and for what purpose. 1 The views expressed in this chapter are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of his affiliation entity. 2 Throughout this chapter SMG is used to denote the standardisation group called GSM before 1992. The working methods of SMG are with some modifications also applied by 3GPP. 3 In this chapter PT SMG is used to denote the project team earlier called PN and PT12. 4 This group existed under different names. 464 GSM and UMTS The Creation of Global Mobile Communication The GSM .
