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The article focuses on the development and industry-wide implications of the ISO/IEC 24773 international technology standard. The existence of several national-level standards organizational bodies and regulations are mentioned and the collaborative efforts between several to produce a globally unified or equivalent certification set are highlighted. The multinational nature of the software industry is described and common challenges in engineer knowledge sets are discussed. The IEEE Computer Society's SWEBOK project towards providing a single standards package is also mentioned.

The article discusses the impact that standards would have on the information technology (IT) service industry by creating interoperability between businesses and hardware. There are standards used by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). It is noted that using an agility-based standpoint for standards development would maintain flexibility in the IT industry. The relationship between engineering standards and software development is discussed, particularly the work of the U.S. National Bureau of Standards and IEEE to set standards.

The article discusses the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0), aimed at helping Web developers create sites more accessible to older and disabled users. WCAG 2.0 includes a variety of standards to assist those with visual, hearing, neurological, and other problems. As opposed to its predecessor standard, WCAG 2.0 can accommodate all Web technologies including Adobe Flash. Gregg Vanderheiden of the University of Wisconsin notes that substantial modifications aren't necessary to bring an existing Web site into compliance with WCAG 2.0.