{"id":268,"date":"2016-02-10T21:26:24","date_gmt":"2016-02-10T21:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/?p=268"},"modified":"2016-03-08T21:28:38","modified_gmt":"2016-03-08T21:28:38","slug":"international-standards-organizations-defining-iso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/2016\/02\/10\/international-standards-organizations-defining-iso\/","title":{"rendered":"International Standards Organizations: Defining ISO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professional certification bodies can do more than demonstrate conformity to international standards for the certification of persons. They can get involved with setting those standards. The world\u2019s largest developer of voluntary international standards is ISO. What is ISO?<\/p>\n

ISO is the International Organization for Standardization.\u00a0 ISO is an independent, non-governmental organization comprised of 162 national member bodies.\u00a0 Founded in 1946 when a group of 25 countries met to create an organization \u201cto facilitate the international coordination and unification of industrial standards\u201d (1997, ISO, Friendship Among Equals: Recollections from ISO\u2019s first 50 years), ISO brings together experts to develop consensus-based, voluntary and market-relevant International standards.\u00a0 Based in Geneva, Switzerland, ISO has published over 19,000 international standards covering almost everything.<\/p>\n

ISO explains its name by stating, \u201cBecause ‘International Organization for Standardization’ would have different acronyms in different languages (IOS in English, OIN in French for Organisation internationale de normalisation<\/em>), our founders decided to give it the short form ISO. ISO is derived from the Greek isos, meaning equal. Whatever the country, whatever the language, we are always ISO.\u201d (ISO, Website: http:\/\/www.iso.org\/iso\/home\/about.htm<\/a> ).<\/p>\n

ISO\u2019s members are a network of national standards bodies for which there is one per country and the body represents ISO in its country.\u00a0 Individuals or companies cannot be members of ISO. Examples of national standards bodies include the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), and the British Standards Institute (BSI).\u00a0 ISO\u2019s members are involved in the operation of ISO through a once a year \u201cGeneral Assembly\u201d which is managed by ISO\u2019s Secretary General and ISO\u2019s staff of more than 150 full time employees.\u00a0 Day to day operations are also managed from the Geneva office.\u00a0 Additionally ISO\u2019s members are active in the operations of ISO by serving on Technical Committees who are developing standards as well as on governance committees.<\/p>\n

The following map illustrates the involvement in ISO by country with the blue countries representing ISO member bodies:<\/p>\n

\"1455128036810\"<\/p>\n

ISO International Standards provide specifications for products, services, systems and persons and are designed to ensure quality, safety and efficiency.\u00a0 By having standards, international trade is facilitated.\u00a0 When a standard is developed, an organization can choose to voluntarily use the standards or, in some cases, can choose to be certified as meeting the standard.\u00a0 Certification of products, services, systems and persons are conducted by certification bodies also known as conformity assessment bodies.<\/p>\n

ISO has a conformity assessment committee (CASCO) that develops standards and addresses issues related to conformity assessment. Conformity assessment is a set of processes that demonstrate that a product, service or system meets the requirements of a standard. It is basically comparing the organization against the standard.\u00a0 ISO CASCO develops conformity assessment policy and publishes conformity assessment standards.<\/p>\n

You can identify a conformity assessment standard because it starts with the number 17.\u00a0 ISO\/IEC 17024 Conformity assessment — General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons<\/em> is an example of an ISO CASCO standard.\u00a0 ISO\/IEC 17024 is a conformity assessment standard that contains requirements for Certification Bodies that certify the competence of people.\u00a0 Similarly ISO\/IEC 17011 <\/em>Conformity assessment — General requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies<\/em> is a conformity assessment standard that contains requirements for bodies that accredit conformity assessment bodies.\u00a0 Examples of accrediting bodies are the ANSI, the SCC, and the United Kingdom Accreditation Services (UKAS).<\/p>\n

ISO CASCO also has several policy committees including the<\/p>\n