Procedure: Creating, Reviewing, and Voting on EPA Web Standards

Brief Description

This procedure describes the steps for creating, reviewing, and voting on web standards that impact the public web (www.epa.gov), intranet/EPA@Work (work.epa.gov), and Microsoft 365/My Workplace (https://usepa.sharepoint.com/ ), as well as all other EPA web sites. The authorized Council representatives shall vote to approve.

• Rationale
• Definitions
• Exemptions
• Steps for Commenting and Voting on Web Standards
• Steps for Maintaining and Renewing Standards
• Related governance documents
• Full metadata about this standard

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Rationale

One function of the Web, Intranet, and M365 Councils is to establish and implement agency-wide policies, procedures, and standards to deliver operational certainty and stability for EPA’s web-based content. Each Office and Region has a voice in determining these governing directives by having a representative on each of these three Councils.

The Web and Intranet Councils are led by National Program Managers in OMS and OPA. The M365 Council is led by the National M365 Program Manager in OMS/OIM and the National M365 Global Administrator in OMS/OITO.

This procedure outlines the process by which new standards are developed, existing standards are reviewed and updated, and finalized standards are voted on and authorized.

Definitions

Sponsor: The individual or group proposing a new standard or an update to an already-existing standard.

Voting Member: The Web, Intranet, or M365 Council member designated to cast a vote on behalf of an Office and Region. Each AAship and Region has one voting member and one or more back-up member who can cast a vote in their absence on each of these Councils. A voting member may serve on one or multiple of the Councils, as some of the work overlaps.

Voting Coordinator: The individual responsible for tallying votes and determining the results, usually the facilitator of the Council meeting if using a tally in a council meeting, or the Governance Lead if using an asynchronous poll.

Council Facilitator: The individual who works with the National Managers and any steering committees to create the agenda of the council meeting and to facilitate the meetings.

National Managers: The program leads for the three Councils. They and their colleagues, often in a steering committee, identify priorities, elevate issues, and decide agendas for the councils to discuss.

• www.epa.gov and other public web sites: OPA (content) and OMS/OIM (infrastructure) are the national leads.

• work.epa.gov and other internal web sites: OPA (content) and OMS/OIM (infrastructure) are the national leads.

• usepa.sharepoint.com: OMS/OITO (program) and OMS/OIM (technical) are the national leads

Governance Lead: The individual who leads the Web Governance and Compliance Monitoring program in OMS/OIM. This person facilitates the overall process of creating, maintaining, and reviewing web standards for www.epa.gov, work.epa.gov, and usepa.sharepoint.com.

Standards, Procedures, and Guidance:

• A Standard is a governance directive that applies to web sites and applications at EPA and is mandatory for owners and editors to follow. Some standards apply to all web applications. Some are specifically for public or internal sites, or for M365 teams and sites. If they are specific, the standard will specify it as such and outline the types of sites to which it applies and those to which it does not. Standards require a quorum (51%) full vote of offices to be represented at representatives from the applicable council (Web, Intranet, M365) when the vote takes place.

• A Procedure explains how best to comply with a Standard. It can be included in a Standard or be a separate document. A Procedure usually does not need to be voted upon, as it is technical direction on how to comply with a Standard.

• A Guideline is a governance directive that applies to specific web sites and/or applications and is not mandatory but is highly encouraged. Other terms that mean guideline include “best practices”, “recommendations”, “guidances”, etc. A guideline may be put into place through discussion with the applicable council and a voice vote or a lack of dissenting opinion.

Exemptions

Not all decisions will be voted on by the council. The National Managers have the ultimate authority to make decisions within their areas of responsibility.

In some cases, immediate action or swift decisions may be required on directives due to security or operational concerns. In those cases, the National Managers may make immediate decisions and bring the directives before the council for discussion later.

Steps for Commenting and Voting on Web Standards

1. Write Proposal - The Sponsor of the proposed directive (or the Governance Lead) will write up the standard or any changes to an existing standard and post it in the Proposed Web Standards channel in the Web Governance and Compliance Monitoring team. This first proposal may go through a comment process with a subgroup before it is presented to the Council for review.

2. Communicate Proposal – The Sponsor or Governance Lead will post a link to the proposed or changed standard in the appropriate Council team to inform Council members that they can review it before the first reading at the next meeting.

3. Conduct First Reading – The Sponsor or the Governance Lead will present the proposed or changed standard at a Web, Intranet, or M365 Council meeting. The presentation should include a detailed explanation of the proposed or changed standard and the rationale behind it, and an opportunity for discussion at the meeting. The discussion should allow arguments for and against the various components of the proposed standard. Comments will be recorded in the meeting notes.

4. Update Proposal (#1) – The Sponsor or Governance Lead will update the standard based on the discussion at the first reading and communicate to the appropriate council(s) when the revised standard is available for further review. The communication will include instructions on how to submit comments and a deadline for comments (usually 2 weeks).

5. Collect Comments – Council members can provide their comments during the comment period. Since Council meetings are monthly, Council members should have 30-60 days to review and comment on standards before a vote is called.

6. Update Proposal (#2) – The Sponsor or Governance Lead will update the standard after the comment period to address the comments and communicate to the Council members when the revised standard is ready for further review. The communication will include a notification that the 2nd reading will occur at the next Council meeting.

7. Conduct Second Reading - The Sponsor or Governance Lead will present the updated standard at the next council meeting and remind members that they’ve already had plenty of time to comment, so there should be very few comments at this point.  Repeat steps 3 through 6 only under extenuating circumstances.

8. Conduct Vote - Each Office and Region gets one vote. Voting can be conducted by voice or online. Members can vote Yes, No, or Abstain. Abstentions do not count toward the vote itself; they contribute to establishing a 51% quorum. The proposal will pass with a majority of YES over NO votes. In general, the vote will happen at the second reading, unless there are unresolved issues that necessitate further discussion and revision.

   (Note: The Web, Intranet, and M365 Councils are authorized to establish web governance, but governance decisions are subject to final review and approval by senior management in the National Managers’ offices). 

   1. For voice votes, a council member will move to vote, and another will second. Then the Voting Coordinator will read the motion “The proposed standard on [proposal name] shall be accepted.” They then will call each Office and Region by name. The voting member will respond with Yea (or Yes), Nay (or No), or Abstain. The Voting Coordinator will repeat each response to make sure it is captured correctly.
   2. For online votes, the person leading the vote will send out an electronic ballot to the designated voting member for each Office or Region with a cc to the non-voting member(s). If more than one vote is received from an Office or Region, the voting member’s response will take precedence.

9. Records Management – There will be at least two document files to preserve as records: the draft document file with comments, responses, and edits from discussion with Council members, and the final approved document file with comments removed. If the document went through a preliminary subgroup discussion, there also may be a third preliminary draft document with subgroup edits and discussion as well. When the standard has been approved by the appropriate Council, the Governance Lead will copy the comment draft(s) and the final clean document into EPA’s Records Management system.

Steps for Maintaining and Renewing Standards

1. Standards Repository – Once a standard is approved by its Council, the Lead for the Web Governance Program (OMS/OIM) will have the standard published in the correct repository. Standards and procedures should include the Effective Date and the Date of Next Scheduled Review.

   1. Public: Standards for the public web site are maintained in the Web Guide: Policies and Procedures web area.
   2. Internal: Standards for the Intranet web site are maintained in the Intranet Guide: Intranet Policies, Procedures, and Standards.
   3. Usepa.sharepoint.com: Standards for EPA content in Microsoft 365 are maintained in the M365 Governance Wiki (sharepoint.com). Governance wiki articles are reviewed annually. Their published date shows when they were last reviewed and updated. Review tracking is done by spreadsheet in the M365 Governance Team files library.

2. Review of Standards - Regular review of published standards will be coordinated by the Lead for the Web Governance Program (OMS/OIM), who will work with each Council and their Facilitators to identify standards scheduled for review and present them to the Council(s) for review and comment using the steps for Commenting and Voting on Standards, above. Standards can be reviewed and updated before their scheduled review time if necessary.

   1. www.epa.gov and other public sites: Public web standards are reviewed every three years. They are tracked in a shared spreadsheet on the Web Policy Review Central SharePoint site.
   2. Work.epa.gov and other internal sites: Intranet web standards are reviewed every three years. They are tracked in a shared spreadsheet on the Web Policy Review Central SharePoint site.
   3. Usepa.sharepoint.com and other M365 teams and sites: M365 governance wiki articles are reviewed annually. Their published date shows when they were last reviewed and updated. Review tracking is done by spreadsheet in the M365 Governance Team files library.

Related Governance Documents

EPA

Related Policies

• None

Related Procedures

• None

Related Standards

• None

Related Guidance

• None

Non-EPA

• None

Full Metadata about this Standard

Name Creating, Reviewing, and Voting on EPA Web Standards
Type Procedure
Required or Recommended Required
Effective date 09/13/2023
Date last approved 09/13/2023
Category Web Governance
Web Council review by 09/13/2026 (or earlier if deemed necessary by the Web Council)
Governing Policy Web Governance and Management