Standards vs. Experience
I agree, standards can be a very good thing if used and applied intelligently to projects. My concern lies in the conflict between creating standards and guidelines vs the fact that most people who have significant experience in a field don't necessarily adhere to structure. One cannot "deconstruct" experience into a system; much of what leads people to make the decisions they do can have more to do with intuitive thought processes than with structured ones. Yet by the same token, a complete lack of structure when planning can result in chaos and unexpected (and expensive) consequences.
Perhaps one method would be to apply generalized standards at the outset, and distilling them into more specific categories as the project matures. Thiswould allowing enough creative freedom for those capable of using it intelligently, while generating documentation that can be followed by the less experienced, and also used as a reference to procedures when dealing with auditors and the like.
