To allow diverse information systems to be integrated. Ease of use To make the information understandable in business terms and easily meet business needs. To foster an open market in related components. Both in pre-built components and in tools for using and building components. With all the advantages of a standard, there is a dark side also.
Restrictive standards can stifle innovation and poor standards can do more harm than good.
To minimize the inherent problems of standardization, standards should be minimal . That is they should provide a sufficient level of standardization to meet the goals but no more. Simple, minimal standards are also easier to adopt to future innovation. Another question of a standard is its scope. We are targeting information systems because of the extreme importance of data processing and because of the high degree of commonality among applications.