Well since Microsoft seems to think they are the Standardization god (and I guess in many ways they are) I went looking on their websites for Strong Password Standardizations and I found some stuff.

However they can't even seem to agree amongst themselves on the standards, for example here they say that strong passwords should be at least six characters in length...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ms722458.aspx

And here they say 8 which appears to be what their Password tester requires as well
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/create.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/checker.mspx

And here they say 14

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/checker.mspx

Go figure!