Overview
ISO/IEC 17007:2009 - Conformity assessment - Guidance for drafting normative documents suitable for use for conformity assessment - provides principles and practical guidance for writing standards, technical specifications, regulations and other normative documents so they can be reliably used in conformity assessment (testing, inspection, certification). Prepared by CASCO (ISO Committee on conformity assessment), this International Standard helps standards developers, regulators, accreditation bodies and other stakeholders create clear, neutral and testable requirements.
Key Topics
- Scope and audience: Guidance is intended for standards developers not using ISO/IEC Directives, industry consortia, purchasers, regulators, consumers, accreditation bodies, conformity assessment bodies and scheme owners.
- Five guiding principles (Clause 4):
- Separation of requirements for the object of conformity assessment from requirements about conformity assessment activities.
- Neutrality toward who performs conformity assessment (first, second, third party).
- Functional approach to conformity assessment (selection, determination, review/attestation, surveillance).
- Comparability of conformity assessment results.
- Good practice in conformity assessment.
- Drafting requirements for objects (Clause 5):
- How to state specified requirements for products, processes, services, systems or persons.
- Considerations for sampling and test methods where directly related to specified characteristics.
- Specifying conformity assessment systems (Clause 6):
- Identifying the need for formal systems and performing risk assessment.
- Designing systems, specifying requirements, and considerations for accreditation, peer assessment and mutual recognition of results.
- Annexes: Informative “conformity assessment toolbox” and an overview of conformity assessment activities for practical reference.
Applications
ISO/IEC 17007:2009 is practical for:
- Standards developers drafting requirements that must be verifiable by testing, inspection or certification.
- Regulators and purchasing organizations seeking clarity on how normative requirements can be demonstrated.
- Accreditation bodies and conformity assessment bodies designing or assessing schemes for testing, inspection, certification, and surveillance.
- Industry consortia and scheme owners aiming to ensure their normative documents enable reproducible and mutually accepted conformity assessment results.
Benefits include clearer, more neutral standards, improved interoperability of conformity assessment outcomes, and facilitation of market access through recognized assessment practices.
Related Standards
- ISO/IEC 17000:2004 (vocabulary and general principles of conformity assessment)
- ISO/IEC Directives (good standardization practice)
- WTO TBT Agreement - Code of Good Practice
- CASCO publications and the conformity assessment “toolbox”
Keywords: ISO/IEC 17007:2009, conformity assessment, normative documents, standards development, accreditation, testing, inspection, certification, mutual recognition.