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Glossary of terms and abbreviations

Terms

Adoption (of an International Standard as a regional or national standard): publication of a national or regional normative document based on a relevant International Standard, or endorsement of an International Standard as having the same status as a national normative document, with any deviations from the International Standard identified (synonymous with "taking over": see ISO/IEC Guide 21-1:1995, definition 3.6, and ISO/IEC Guide 2: 2004, definition 10.1).

Certification: third-party attestation (i.e., issue of a statement) that specified requirements related to products, processes, systems or persons have been fulfilled (adapted from ISO/IEC 17000, 2005, Definitions 5.2 and 5.5).

Consumer: an individual member of the general public, purchasing or using goods, property, or services, for private purposes as defined by ISO/COPOLCO Resolution 9/1978 (from the ISO/IEC Statement on consumer participation in standardization work).

Consumer representative: designated representative of a consumer organization.

Consumer organization: an independent organization which is

• advocating the interests of consumers before other organizations and governments
• not-for-profit in character
• not involved in the advancement of commercial interests although it may engage in trading activities related to the provision of consumer information and to promoting its own work
• not affiliated with any political party

or an organization or agency that is active in consumer affairs. Such an organization or agency may for example specialize in one particular consumer issue such as standards, law or consumer protection.

(See www.iso.org/sr - Document N48, Rev.1 – also see related guidance).

Conformity assessment: demonstration that specified requirements relating to a product, process, system, person or body are fulfilled (See ISO/IEC 17000, 2004, Definition 2.1).

Ergonomics: the application of scientific information concerning humans, such as behavioural and biological information, to the design of objects, systems and environment to ensure their safe, efficient and convenient use by people (adapted from the definition used by the Ergonomics Society (British Society)  www.ergonomics.org.uk. Also see definitions in ISO/IEC Guide 71 and ISO 6385).

Harmonized standards: standards on the same subject approved by different standardizing bodies that establish interchangeability of products, processes and services, or mutual understanding of test results or information provided according to these standards. (see ISO/IEC Guide 2, 2004, Definition 6.1).

Harmonized technical regulations: technical regulations on the same subject approved by different authorities that establish interchangeability of products, processes and services, or mutual understanding of test results or information provided according to these technical regulations. (see ISO/IEC Guide 2, 2004, Clause 6, NOTE).

Member body: a national body most representative of standardization in its country. Only one such body in each country is accepted for membership of ISO. Member bodies are entitled to participate and exercise full voting rights on any technical or policy committee of ISO. They can use ISO standards as the basis for their national standards (from My ISO Job).

New Approach: a legal framework in force within the European Union (EU) since 1985, which, through technical harmonization, aims at promoting free movement of goods and services. EU Directives define the "essential requirements", e.g., protection of health and safety that goods must meet when they are placed on the market. European standards organizations (CEN, CENELEC, ETSI) define technical specifications to meet the requirements of the Directives. Compliance with the technical specifications infers compliance with the essential requirements of the EU Directives. Such specifications are referred to as "harmonized standards". (Adapted from the description at: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newapproach/standardization/harmstds/index_en.html)

Organization in liaison: an international or broadly-based regional organization that is represented in one of ISO’s technical committees, in a reciprocal arrangement (“A” liaison, as opposed to “B” or observer liaison). “A” liaisons have the right to participate in meetings and to comment on drafts, but they cannot vote. Liaison arrangements are also possible at the working group level (“D” liaison) . This helps ensure wide acceptance of the final result and coordination of parallel standardization activities. – (adapted from the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1, clause 1.17; and information publication, My ISO Job). The same arrangements can apply for liaison with policy committees, such as ISO/COPOLCO.

(COPOLCO) Plenary meeting – a general meeting bringing together nominated representatives of a committee’s participating members from among the ISO Member Bodies.

Product: the result of a process, i.e., a set of interrelated or interacting activities which transforms inputs into outputs, of which four generic categories are services, software, hardware and processed materials (Adapted from ISO 9000:2005, Definitions 3.4.1 and 3.4.2).

Proposal for a new work item: proposal for the preparation of a standard or a series of related standards in the field covered by an existing committee (such as a technical committee) of the organization to which the proposal is made. (ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1, Procedures for the technical work, Sixth edition 2008, Annex C, Clause C.2.3)

Recognized Body: a legal or administrative entity that has specific tasks and composition, with acknowledged authority for publishing standards. NOTE (adapted from ISO 17000 and ISO/IEC Guide 2 for definitions of "recognition" and "body").

Service: the result of at least one activity necessarily performed at the interface between the supplier and the customer, which is generally intangible (See ISO 9000:2005, Definition 3.4.2, Note 2)

Societal security: protection of society from and response to crises caused by intentional and unintentional human acts, natural hazards and technical failures (from ISO 22300, Working Draft, Definition 5.1.31) .

Specifications: tolerances, limiting values and other defining characteristics for materials, products, services, processes, systems or persons, contained within the provisions of a standard.

Stakeholder: individual, or group of individuals, with interests that may affect, or be affected by, an organization (from ISO 26000, Working Draft 3 (Rev), definition 3.17).

Technical harmonization: process of harmonizing technical practices of any kind, whether at the national, regional or international level. This process deals with technical issues, is facilitated by standards and is often used in support of policy objectives. One example would be a country that legislates mandatory compliance with ISO/IEC 14065, Greenhouse gases -- Requirements for greenhouse gas validation and verification bodies for use in accreditation or other forms of recognition, as part of its overall policy objective to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Technical regulation: document which lays down product characteristics or their related processes and production methods, including the applicable administrative provisions, with which compliance is mandatory. It may also include or deal exclusively with terminology, symbols, packaging, marking or labelling requirements as they apply to a product, process or production method.

(From ISO/IEC Guide 59: 1994, Annex A)

Third-party: a person or body that is independent of the organization or person that provides the object of conformity assessment (adapted from ISO/IEC 17000, 2004, Definition 2.4 ).