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The Revision of ISO/IEC 17000

Generally, speaking, the ISO 17000 series of standards and documents (any document starting with 17xxx) are meant to be used for conformity assessment.  These would include ISO/IEC 17024: Conformity Assessment – General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons;

ISO/IEC 17011: Conformity assessment – Requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies; and ISO/IEC 17021: Conformity assessment – requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems.  All of these 17000 series standards and documents have a common structure and are based on a common vocabulary.  ISO/IEC 17000 is the vocabulary document associated with all of ISO’s 17000 series documents.  It’s formal name is ISO/IEC 17000: Conformity Assessment – Vocabulary and general principles.

Last published in 2004, ISO/IEC 17000 is currently undergoing revision.  An ISO/IEC working group (WG49) has been working on this revision for the past year.  The revision will likely be finalized this year (2019) or early next year (2020).  ISO/IEC 17000 contains conformity assessment terminology intended to be used by all of the ISO/IEC 17000 series of standards

ISO/IEC 17000 is designed to be a consistent framework within which conformity assessment concepts are defined. The terms included in 17000 are terms that are consistent

with all 17000 standards.  Terms where the dictionary definition suffices are not included.  If there are terms that are related only to a specific standard, then they are defined in that standard and not in ISO/IEC 17000.  For example, the term “invigilator” is unique to ISO/IEC 17024 and so it is not defined in 17000.

Additionally, 17000 describes the functional approach to conformity assessment.  The functional approach is a series of activities (functions) that the auditor/assessor follows when conducting an audit/assessment to determine if specific requirements in a standard are being met.  The functional approach consists of five major functions (selection, determination, review, decision and attestation).  The graphic provided illustrates the process of the functional approach.  Person Certification Bodies can relate to the functional approach because they do the same thing when certifying people.  They select what they are going to assess (in this case a person).  Then they determine what specifically they are going to evaluate (the competencies).  Next they review the data they have gathered (test results, etc.) and they make a decision as to whether or not the person meets the standard.  And if the person does, they attest (award a certificate) that the person meets the standard.  Similarly, when an accreditation body such as ANSI conducts an accreditation assessment of a certification body to ISO/IEC 17024, they select, determine, review, take a decision, and then attest. The functional approach has been the basis for all conformity assessment and certification activities for a long time.

Before revision of the standard could begin, the working group created concept maps for all of the terms it believed should be included in the revised standard.  A concept map is a diagram showing how the terms related to one another.  This helps the members of the WG ensure they are thinking about the same “concepts” when talking about a particular term.  Below is an example of a concept map for functional approach terms.

In the diagram you can see that Selection, Determination, Review, Decision and Attestation function activities are part of conformity assessment. Under selection, you can see that Sampling is a type of Selection.  Similarly, Testing, Inspection, Auditing, Verification, Validation and Peer Assessment are types of determination function activities.  You can see that an Accreditation Body is associated with Accreditation. 

A number of concepts maps were generated and then the WG set about to define the terms.  A number of new terms were added.  These include:

• Object of Conformity Assessment/Object – entity to which specified requirements apply
• Owner/Owner of a system or scheme – person or organization responsible for the development and maintenance of a system or scheme
• Impartiality – objectivity with regard to the outcome of a conformity assessment activity
• Independence – freedom of a person or organization form the control or authority of another person or organization
• Validation – confirmation of plausibility for a specific intended use or application, through the provision of objective evidence that specified requirements have been fulfilled
• Verification – confirmation of truthfulness, through the provision of objective evidence that specified requirements have been fulfilled
• Decision – conclusion based on the results of review that fulfillment of specified requirements has or has not been demonstrated
• Expiry – ending of the validity of the statement of conformity after a specified period
• Restoration – reinstatement of the full or partial statement of conformity following a suspension

Members of the person certification community might find the definition of the term “validation” interesting.  This definition was generated by another WG and when they arrived at the definition, they tried to select a definition that they felt worked for all of the 17000 series standards.  So while it may not be the best or perfect definition for validation as we think of validity psychometrically, the definition does not conflict (meaning it still works).  Another change included modifying the term Conformity Assessment System. The old definition was “rules, procedures, and management for carrying out conformity assessment.”  The new definition is a “Set of common rules and procedures for the management of similar or related conformity assessment schemes.”  Finally, a few terms were deleted.

For more blogs related to accreditation, check out ISO/IEC 17024 Implementation Around the World and ISO/IEC 17011 – A Standard for Accreditation Bodies.

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