Maybe I missed it, but I do not recall seeing mention in this thread of a
significant aspect
of an ADs role – reviewing documents from outside there area – i.e., the
cross-jurisdictional review step that the IESG review represents.
This is a major differentiator between the IETF and most other IT
standards development organizations. In most other organizations
the only technical expertise applied to a proposal comes from within a
working group (working party etc) – a group that will always have a
limited scope of expertise
The IESG’s cross-area review ensures that proposals undergo
review by experts in areas that will likely not be represented within
a particular working group.
Documents, no matter how clearly written, produced by an individual
working group, no matter the level of subject matter expertise, can
benefit from careful review by experts who have expertise outside the
scope of the people participating in the working group.
When I was an AD (a rather long time ago now) I saw many documents
where inadequate attention had been paid to security, congestion control,
manageability, etc.
i.e., it is not sufficient to say, as has been said during this thread, that
the
onus should fall on a working group chair to ensure the quality of the
documents that are produced by a working group, the best documents
can be made better, in terms of being used on the Internet, by the
cross-area review done by the IESG.
Scott