Chapter 1 General Provisions

Article 1 To implement the State Council's Plan for Deepening the Reform of Standardization Work, the procedures and rules for developing SparkLink Alliance standards are defined as follows by referring to GB/T20004.1-2016 Association Standardization—Part 1: Guidelines for Good Practice.

Article 2 In this document, the "SparkLink Alliance Association Standards" (the “Association Standards”) refers to the standards that are formulated and published through organized efforts of the SparkLink Alliance (the Alliance) in accordance with the SparkLink Alliance Charter (the Charter) and observing the procedure stipulated herein. 

Article 3 The Alliance standards mainly address the development, design, test certification, and marketing of SparkLink short-range wireless communications technology and related products. The Alliance encourages its members to proactively engage in standards formulation activities. 

Article 4 Guidelines for formulating Alliance standards: 

1) Formulate standards in line with market needs or in response to the pain points of the industry. Use the latest technological innovations to address industry challenges and meet diversified market needs. Transform scientific and technological achievements into standards, to fast-track the industry and build an ecosystem.

2) Ensure extensive participation and a transparent process.

3) Draw on the Alliance's strengths in technical innovation and focus on standard formulation in emerging technology fields. 

Chapter 2 Organizational Structure and Responsibilities

Article 5 The SparkLink Alliance Council (the Council) has the final say on all matters related to standardization. The Council shall make decisions on major issues such as the direction, strategy and mechanism of standards development, review and publish Association Standards. 

Article 6 The SparkLink Alliance Expert Committee (the Expert Committee) shall provide technical consultation and review for standards formulation activities as well as suggestions for the direction and strategy of standards development. 

Article 7 The Requirements and Standards Working Group of the  Alliance (the "Standards Group") shall formulate and revise standards (including collecting requirements, initiating projects, making work plans, as well as drafting and reviewing standards), and ensure that technical sections in the standards are reasonable, complete, and well-researched based on the latest trends. 

Article 8 The Test Certification, Intelligent Automotive Industry Promotion, Smart Home Industry Promotion, Smart Device Industry Promotion, and Smart Manufacturing Industry Promotion Working Groups shall feed back their standards requirements to the Standards Group to jointly drive the Association Standards development. 

Article 9 Article 6. The SparkLink Alliance Secretariat (the Secretariat) shall organize initiation of standards projects, coordinate resources to draft and review standards, submit the standards for approval, as well as publish, revise, and second-review the standards. In addition, the Secretariat shall archive process and other important documents related to standards development. 

Chapter 3 Procedure for Formulating and Revising Association Standards

Article 10 Association Standards shall be formulated following the process defined in Annex 1, which mainly includes submitting proposal, initiating the project, drafting standards, soliciting comments, technology review, approval, numbering, publication and re-examination. 

Article 11 The preparation and revision of Association Standards follow the "three drafts, three reviews" rules. (Three drafts refer to the drafts for soliciting comments, review, and approval, respectively). 

Article 12 Association Standards are numbered according to the following rules:

Article 13 Association Standards developed and published jointly with other organizations (e.g., QQQQ) are numbered in the following format: T/XS XXXXX.XX-XXXX and T/QQQQ XXXX.XX-XXXX. 

Section 1. Project Initiation and Drafting

Article 14 The Standards Group shall regularly collect standards formulation and revision requirements, and handle urgent requirements in no time. 

Article 15 Members of the Standards Group can individually or collectively apply to initiate an Association Standards project. In case of collective application, a responsible member shall be specified to coordinate the standards formulation and revision. Project initiation application materials shall be submitted to the Standards Group, including the Association Standards Project Proposal (see Annex 2). The applicant shall ensure that the application materials are complete and free from mistakes, and shall be responsible for the content.

Article 16 The Standards Group reviews project initiation materials from the technical perspective as well as the necessity and feasibility of standards formulation. If there is no objection to the project initiation, the Standards Group may organize efforts to draft the Association Standard and proceed with other tasks. If any member disagrees with the project initiation, the Standards Group shall arrange for relevant members to address the disagreement through technical discussion within 10 working days. If they are unable to do so, they should vote. The project passes when at least three quarters of the relevant members’ valid votes are favorable. Abstention vote is not counted as valid vote.

Article 17 The Secretariat submits the project initiation results to the Expert Committee for review, reports to the Council to put on record, and publishes a project initiation announcement. 

Article 18 The Association Standard Drafting Team (the Drafting Team) shall include a maximum of 3 responsible members and a minimum of 2 participating members. 

Article 19 The Drafting Team shall have started to prepare the draft for soliciting comments within one month after receiving the notice of project initiation approval. 

The Drafting Team shall hold sufficient discussions, and complete the Association Standards Draft For Soliciting Comments (Draft for Comments) and About the Standards according to GB/T 1.1 Directives for Standardization - Part 1: Structure and Drafting of Standards. The time it takes to prepare the Draft for Comments shall be in line with the agenda in the plan. If no such specification exists, the time to draft the document shall not exceed 12 months. If the Draft for Comments cannot be completed within the required time, the Drafting Team shall contact the Standards Group in time to adjust the plan.

Article 20 After the Draft for Comments is approved by the Standards Group, the Secretariat sends a notice to all Alliance members to solicit comments. 

Section 2. Part 2 Soliciting Comments and Reviewing

Article 21  Unless otherwise required, it takes 30 days to solicit comments on the Draft for Comments. 

Article 22 The Drafting Team shall sort and record the comments collected using the SparkLink Alliance Association Standards Comments Summary (Draft for Comments) template provided in Annex 3, and then revise the draft accordingly, forming an improved draft for review (Draft for Review).

Article 23 The Standards Group shall submit required materials to the Expert Committee for the Association Standards review, which shall include: 

l Draft for Review

l About the Standards (see Annex 4)

l SparkLink Alliance Association Standards Comments Summary (Draft for Comments)

l Additional information about the standards

Article 24 The Expert Committee arranges for a review team to review the aforementioned materials. 

Article 25 After the review, the review team fills in the SparkLink Alliance Association Standards Review Form (see Annex 5). In principle, the review team shall reach consensus on whether to pass or reject the Draft for Review. If they are unable to do so, they should vote. The Draft for Review passes when at least three quarters of the review team members’ valid votes are favorable. Abstention vote is not counted as valid vote. The Secretariat shall record in writing the votes and different opinions. If the Draft for Review fails to pass the review, the review team shall offer a specific suggestion: solicit comments again, revise the document, or terminate the project. 

Article 26 The Drafting Team shall carefully handle the review comments and sort them in the SparkLink Alliance Association Standards Comments Summary (Draft for Review) using the template in Annex 3.

Article 27 Then, the Drafting Team shall revise the Draft for Review according to the review comments, and output the Draft for Approval.

Section 3. Submission for Approval

Article 28 The Standards Group shall submit the following materials to the Council in the approval phase: 

l Draft for Approval

l About the Standards

l SparkLink Alliance Association Standards Comments Summary (Draft for Comments)

l SparkLink Alliance Association Standards Review Form

l SparkLink Alliance Association Standards Comments Summary (Draft for Review)

Section 4. Approval, Publish and Re-examination

Article 29 The Alliance will officially publish an Association Standard after it is approved by the Council. 

Article 30 General technical issues regarding the standard can be addressed through the SparkLink Alliance Standards Amendment Form provided in Annex 6. The Standards Group decides whether to accept the amendment and report it to the Expert Committee to put on record. 

Article 31 The Alliance shall re-examine an Association Standard within 3 years after it is published. The Secretariat raises an re-examination request, the Standards Group reviews and revises the Association Standard from the technical perspective, and the Expert Committee examines the overall standard. The Secretariat shall publish a bulletin regarding the re-examination. 

Article 32 The re-examination conclusion shall include a specific suggestion: (1) maintain the standard, (2) revise the standard, or (3) abolish the standard. The following actions shall be taken for each suggestion: 

(1) In case of suggestion (1), keep the original Standard No. but add "Validity verified in xxxx (year)" below the Standard No. on the cover. 

(2) In case of suggestion (2), update the year information in the Standard No. without changing any other Standard No. information. 

(3) In case of suggestion (3), abolish the standard promptly. 

Article 33 Currently, this document does not provide any rapid standards development process. 

Section 5. Association Standards Project Adjustment

Article 34 An Association Standards project can be canceled if it cannot be implemented due to major problems with the project plan or the target standard is not published within two years after the project initiation. 

Chapter 4 Supplementary Provisions

Article 35 The SparkLink Alliance reserves the right to interpret these management regulations.

Article 36 These management regulations become effective as of the date of issuance.