Conformity Assessment

In simple terms, conformity assessment covers the activities which determine whether standards, regulations, specifications or other requirements are met. The most common examples include testing, inspection, certification and suppliers' declarations of conformity.

Many aspects of global trade are fundamentally dependent on conformity assessment. For many traded products, commodities and services it is often essential that they are accompanied by test results, measurements, inspection reports or certifications.

However, conformity assessment has been a part of the fabric of most societies since ancient times as a tool to provide reassurance to users of products, services and commodities that some action has been taken to affirm their quantities, qualities, characteristics, performance or other expectations of users. Conformity assessment, therefore, needs to be viewed in a much wider sense than as a facilitator of trade. It is a "whole of society" activity and in most countries its domestic use may ofte outweigh its roles in supporting trade.

The concept of conformity assessment is defined in ISO/IEC 17000:2004 Conformity assessment-Vocabulary and general principles as:

"Demonstration that specified requirements related to a product, process, system, person or body are fulfilled"

It should be noted that this international standard excludes accreditation from the definition of conformity assessment. The role of accreditation is to evaluate and recognize the competence of conformity assessment bodies.