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Resources for standards development

This page contains resources to support the work of individuals involved in standards development. The majority of this information is not password protected. However, some links may take you to pages where your login is required.

Code of Conduct

Participants in ISO committees, working groups or consensus groups are asked to work to the principles in the Code of Conduct (PDF 100 KB).

Explanation of terms and expressions used in ISO standards

ISO uses specific terms and expressions to differentiate between requirements and recommendations in its International Standards. This has implications for conformity assessment. Find out more about terms and expressions.

International Standards and trade

ISO observes and promotes the WTO principles in the development of its International Standards. This is to ensure that they do not create barriers to trade. Find out more about ISO standards and trade.

People sitting around a table in a meeting

Every working day of the year, an average of eight technical meetings take place somewhere in the world.

Roles and responsibilities

The following documents include details of the roles and responsibilities of those involved in standards development, as well as how to play an active role in the process.

My ISO Job (PDF 1.5 MB)

Joining in (PDF 1.43 MB)

Getting Started toolkits

Directives and Policies

The ISO/IEC Directives define the basic procedures to be followed in the development of International Standards and other publications.

Other policies (such as the Patent Policy or the Policy on Global Relevance) contain guiding principles for standards development

For questions on the ISO/IEC Directives please contact directives@iso.org

Developing standards

This section provides an overview of the standards development process with links to the tools, documents and resources for each stage.

For questions on the development of ISO standards, contact draftingstandards@iso.org

How to write standards (PDF 545 kB)

IT Tools for Standards Development

This section contains details on all IT Tools that help support the standards development process.

For questions about IT tools, contact helpdesk@iso.org

Forms, Model Agendas and Standard Letters

This section contains the forms, model agendas and standard letters that may be needed when developing standards. More information on the documents needed at each stage can be found in the Developing Standards section.

Templates

This section contains the templates that can be used as document skeletons to help draft ISO standards. These 'skeletons' include predefined stylistic and structural rules.