To minimize changes to the standards, the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) has established a lifecycle approach for PCI DSS and PA-DSS, where major version changes to the standards will occur every 3 years (for example, an update from version 2.0 to version 3.0)PCI SSC updates its standards to address changes in payment industry threats, risks, and best practices. To ensure organizations have enough time to transition to a new standard without falling out of compliance, the previous version will remain active for 14a period of time (typically between 12 and 18 months) after a major version of thea standard is published. The period of time will depend on factors such as the volume of changes in a standard and the impact to stakeholders. This ensures a gradual, phased introduction of any updated requirements, and helps to prevent organizations from becoming noncompliant when changes are published. The 3-year standards lifecycle also allows for changes "out-of-cycle" as needed to address critical issues or errata. To ensure that organizations can maintain compliance with updated versions of the standards, new requirements may also be phased in with future effective dates. Future-dated requirements are considered best practices until the future date is reached, after which those requirements will be effective and applicable.
