The creation of a standard can take a considerable amount of time. In addition to learning what is needed to make a good standard, international standards have to be written in a manner that takes into consideration the needs of the "member states" or countries that agree to abide by the standard. The chart below links to information about the stages used by ISO as it moves through this process.

Carson, Steve, 2001, "SEDRIS International Standardization," SEDRIS Technology Conference 2001 Introductory Area Tutorials, http://www.sedris.org/stc/2001/tut1trpl.htm