Ballot vs. Non-Ballot Comments

Recent TSC discussion on Coordinating Ballot Submissions: 2021-04-19 TSC Agenda/Minutes

From the GOM:

STUs: (14.02.04)

• At the close of the review ballot the responsible Work Group (WG) shall capture all comments using the
  HL7 Ballot Reconciliation Report unless the WG has petitioned for and been granted a waiver of such
  use by the Technical Steering Committee (TSC). The responsible WG shall consider all comments with
  the intent of improving the quality and clarity of the proposed standard. While not on a par with a
  normative reconciliation package, the results of the Work Group’s consideration of the comments
  submitted as recorded on the Ballot Reconciliation Report shall be posted to the Ballot Desktop.
  
• A negative without comment shall be considered as “no response” and shall not be factored into the
  numerical requirements for approval. No effort shall be made to solicit comments from the submitter of a
  negative without comment.
  
• The process of consideration of the comments is not as complete or rigorous as normative reconciliation.
  There is no requirement to resolve negative comments and seek withdrawal of the negative.
  Nevertheless, The responsible Work Group is expected to annotate each negative comment on the
  reconciliation report with a disposition of “Persuasive”, “Not Persuasive”, “Considered for Future Use”, or
  “Not Related” with a recorded vote and an explanation for the Work Group’s decision in accordance with
  the Work Group’s Decision-making Practices (DMP) to maintain transparency on decisions made. A
  negative ballot withdrawn at the request of the submitter shall be recorded as an affirmative.
  
• The issue of substantive change shall not be applicable to a STU. In the instance of an approved STU
  with substantive change resulting from review, it is left to the discretion of the responsible Work Group to
  either submit to another review ballot or move forward with a request to the TSC to release the revised
  content as a standard for trial use.

Informative: (14.01.04)

• At the close of the ballot the responsible Work Group (WG) shall capture all comments using the HL7
  Ballot Reconciliation Report unless the WG has petitioned for and been granted a waiver of such use by
  the Technical Steering Committee (TSC). The responsible WG shall consider all comments with the
  intent of improving the quality and clarity of the informative document. While not on a par with a
  normative reconciliation package, the results of the Work Group’s consideration of the comments
  submitted as recorded on the Ballot Reconciliation Report shall be posted to the Ballot Desktop.
• A negative without comment shall be considered as “no response” and shall not be factored into the
  numerical requirements for approval. No effort shall be made to solicit comments from the submitter of a
  negative without comment.
• The process of consideration of the comments is not synonymous with nor shall it assume the rigor of
  normative reconciliation. There is no requirement to resolve negative comments and seek withdrawal of
  the negative. Nevertheless, the responsible Work Group is encouraged to annotate each negative
  comment on the reconciliation report with a disposition of “Persuasive”, “Not Persuasive”, “Considered for
  Future Use”, or “Not Related” with a recorded vote and an explanation for the Work Group’s decision in
  accordance with the Work Group’s Decision-Making Practices (DMP) to maintain transparency on
  decisions made. A negative ballot withdrawn at the request of the submitter shall be recorded as an
  affirmative.
• The issue of substantive change shall not be applicable to an informative document. In the instance of
  an approved informative document with substantive change resulting from review, it is left to the
  discretion of the responsible Work Group to either submit to another ballot or move forward with the
  revised informative document.
• If the informative document fails to be approved, it again falls to the discretion of the responsible Work
  Group, after appropriate revision if necessary, to either submit to another review ballot, withdraw the
  document from consideration, or repackage the content and submit it to the TSC for consideration of
  submission to a normative ballot.

Comment: (14.04.04)

• At the close of the comment-only review period the responsible Work Group (WG) shall capture all
  comments using the HL7 Ballot Reconciliation Report unless the WG has petitioned for and been
  granted a waiver of such use by the Technical Steering Committee (TSC). The responsible WG shall
  consider all comments received during the review period with the intent of improving the quality and
  clarity of the submitted content before seeking the approval of the TSC for submission to a subsequent
  ballot.
• The Work Group shall post the results of their consideration of the comments submitted as recorded on
  the Ballot Reconciliation Report to the HL7 Ballot Desktop. There is no requirement to respond to any
  comment or advise any submitter of the disposition of their comments. Given that this is a comment-only
  review; the issue of substantive change is moot