ISO/IEC 17000, Conformity assessment – Vocabulary and general principles, specifies general terms and definitions relating to conformity assessment, including the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies. Its content serves to standardize usage across the conformity assessment community worldwide and also helps policy makers involved in the facilitation of trade within regulatory and international treaty frameworks.
“The new ISO/IEC 17000 is an excellent basis for conformity assessment experts. Not only does it provide new concepts and terminology that reflect the changing modes of business operations in the sector, it also brings the vocabulary in line with ISO 9000 quality management principles and other conformity assessment standards, giving users the most up-to-date resource,” says Sean MacCurtain, Conformity Assessment and Consumer Matters Director at ISO’s Committee on conformity assessment (CASCO).
The standard has recently been revised to include new terms and definitions, align with the updated version of ISO 9000, Quality management systems – Fundamentals and vocabulary, and generally reflect technological or other changes in the conformity assessment sector. It also covers additional terms that have been included in new standards related to this field of activity.