ISO/IEC 17000:2020 Conformity Assessment Vocabulary Released

ISO/IEC 17000, the international standard for vocabulary and general principles related to conformity assessment, has been revised.

Like the previous iteration of this standard, ISO/IEC 17000:2020 – Conformity Assessment – Vocabulary And General Principles specifies general terms and definitions relating to conformity assessment—this includes the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies. It also specifies terms for the use of conformity assessment to facilitate trade.

Informative Annex A of ISO/IEC 17000:2020 features general principles of conformity assessment and a description of the functional approach to conformity assessment.

What’s Changed in the New ISO/IEC 17000?

The first edition of ISO/IEC 17000 was released in 2004, consolidating content previously found in ISO/IEC Guide 2. The second edition of ISO/IEC 17000, developed by the ISO Committee on conformity assessment (CASCO), contains several key revisions.

Notably, the concept of “conformity assessment system” changed, and Annex B, “Related terms defined in other conformity assessment standards,” was expanded. The term “product” was deleted from the body of the ISO/IEC 17000:2020 document and added to Annex B. Annex A also underwent an editorial revision.

Furthermore, several new terms were added to ISO/IEC 17000:2020: “object of conformity assessment,” “owner,” impartiality,” independence,” “validation,” “verification,” “decision,” “expiry,” and “restoration.”

ANAB Accreditation and the ISO/IEC 17000 Series

While ISO/IEC 17000 does not define the boundaries of conformity assessment, it supports a host of standards in the conformity assessment arena, as well as related fields.

In fact, the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB), a wholly owned subsidiary of ANSI, accredits against many international standards in this series. For example, ANAB offers accreditation for forensic service providers to ISO/IEC 17025 and for forensic inspection services to ISO/IEC 17020, laboratory accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025, and product certification accreditation for ISO/IEC 17065, ISO/IEC 17025, and ISO/IEC 17020, among other key program areas.

Anyone in the spheres of accreditation, certification, and conformity assessment benefits from ISO/IEC 17000, as it aggregates many key definitions. However, it is worth noting that additional concepts unique to activities like accreditation, certification of persons, and use of marks of conformity are not included in ISO/IEC 17000:2020 but instead found in international standards related to those activities.

You can learn more about all the accreditation ANAB has to offer at https://anab.ansi.org/.

Get the Current Edition of ISO/IEC 17000

ISO/IEC 17000:2020 Conformity Assessment – Vocabulary And General Principles is available on the ANSI Webstore. As it supports other conformity assessment documents with general principles, many may benefit from acquiring it as part of the ISO/IEC 17000 / 17011 / 17021 Conformity Assessment Package, which comes with a 25% discount.