Standards Development

Scope

The scope shall precisely define the limits of the field of activity. Scopes shall not repeat general aims and principles governing the work of the organization but shall indicate the specific area concerned.

EXAMPLE “Standardization of all machine tools for the working of metal, wood and plastics, operating by removal of material or by pressure”.

Purpose

The purpose and justification of the document to be prepared shall be made clear and the need for standardization of each aspect (such as characteristics) to be included in the document shall be justified.

If a series of new work items is proposed the purpose and the justification of which is common, a common proposal may be drafted including all elements to be clarified and enumerating the titles and scopes of each individual item.

Please note that the items listed in the bullet points below represent a menu of suggestions or ideas for possible documentation to support the purpose and justification of proposals. Proposers should consider these suggestions, but they are not limited to them, nor are they required to comply strictly with them. What is most important is that proposers develop and provide purpose and justification information that is most relevant to their proposals and that makes a substantial business case for the market relevance and need of their proposals. Thorough, well-developed and robust purpose and justification documentation will lead to more informed consideration of proposals and ultimately their possible success in the ISO and IEC systems.

— A simple and concise statement describing the business, technological, societal or environmental issue that the proposal seeks to address, preferably linked to the Strategic Business Plan of the concerned ISO or IEC committee.

— Documentation on relevant global metrics that demonstrate the extent or magnitude of the economic, technological, societal or environmental issue, or the new market. This may include an estimate of the potential sales of the resulting standard(s) as an indicator of potential usage and global relevance.

— Technological benefit — a simple and concise statement describing the technological impact of the proposal to support coherence in systems and emerging technologies, convergence of merging technologies, interoperability, resolution of competing technologies, future innovation, etc.

— Economic benefit — a simple and concise statement describing the potential of the proposal to remove barriers to trade, improve international market access, support public procurement, improve business efficiency for a broad range of enterprises including small and medium sized ones, and/or result in a flexible, cost-effective means of complying with international and regional rules/conventions, etc. A simple cost/benefit analysis relating the cost of producing the document(s) to the expected economic benefit to businesses worldwide may also be helpful.

— Societal benefit(s) — a simple and concise statement describing any societal benefits expected from the proposed document(s).

— Environmental benefit(s) — a simple and concise statement describing any environmental or wider sustainability benefits expected from the proposed document(s).

— A simple and concise statement clearly describing the intended use(s) of the proposed document(s), for example, whether the document is intended as requirements to support conformity assessment or only as guidance or recommended best practices; whether the document is a management system standard; whether the document is intended for use or reference in technical regulation; whether the document is intended to be used to support legal cases in relation to international treaties and agreements.

— A simple and concise statement of metrics for the committee to track in order to assess the impact of the published document over time to achieve the benefits to stakeholders documented under C.4.10 above.

— A statement assessing the prospect of the resulting document(s) being compliant with, for the IEC, the IEC Global Relevance Policy: https://www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs/ac_cl/AC_200817e_AC.pdf and for ISO, with ISO's Global Relevance Policy https://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards_development/governance_of_technical_work.htm and the ISO/TMB recommendations (see NOTE below) regarding sustainable development and sustainability, where relevant.

NOTE For ISO, the ISO/TMB confirmed the following recommendations: 1) When a committee (in any sector) develops a document dealing with sustainability/sustainable development the document must remain within the context of the committee's scope of work; 2) The committee should also notify the TMB with the title and scope as early as possible; 3) The committee undertaking such work should clarify its intentions in the Introduction of the specific standard(s); 4) The most widely used definition of sustainable development is the one from the UN Brundtland committee on sustainable development: development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

— A statement assessing the proposal’s compliance with the Principles for developing ISO and IEC Standards related to or supporting public policy initiatives (for ISO see Annex SO in the Consolidated ISO Supplement and for IEC and ISO see Using and referencing ISO and IEC standards to support public policy https://www.iso.org/sites/policy/) and the possible relation of the resulting document(s) to public policy, including a statement regarding the potential for easier market access due to conformity with appropriate legislation.