Answer
Establishment of standards and following them is critical for system development. This is specially so in large organizations because:
The people involved with system such as users, developers, administrators may change but the system should continue to operate.
Following a clear standard in designing and development is needed to make sure that the system development and operation is not hampered by changes in the workforce.
Standard norms such as documentation, quality norms, proven technology use etc tend to make sure that he system has long and quality life despite change in the stakeholders.
The minimal factors that should be under standardization are:
Documentation
Quality norms
Tools used for development, especially automated tools such as database tools, programming languages, reporting tools etc.
Information technology standard such as operating systems, DBMS, network layouts, user interface technologies etc.