According to ISO/IEC Guide 2:2004 Standardization and related activities - General vocabulary, standard is a document established by consensus and approved by a recognized body that provides for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context.

• Standards help to make life simpler and to increase the reliability and the effectiveness of many goods and services we use;

• Standards are created by bringing together the experience and expertise of all interested parties such as the producers, sellers, buyers, users and regulators of a particular material, product, process or service;

• Standards are designed for voluntary use and do not impose any regulations. However, laws and regulations may refer to certain standards and make compliance with them compulsory;

• Voluntary Standards become mandatory only when they are incorporated into contracts; or they are referenced or adopted by government agencies as part of a regulation to protect public health, safety, and the environment;

• The difference between a standard and a technical regulation lies in compliance. While conformity with standards is voluntary, technical regulations are by nature mandatory.

The process of demonstrating the essential features about a product or services which meet the requirement of standards, regulations and other specification is called conformity assessment. A variety of processes involved in verifying that goods/services meet acceptable voluntary or mandatory standards such as Testing , Surveillance, Inspection, Assessment, Auditing, Certification and Registration.

Objectives of Conformity Assessment are to:

• Ensure the conformance of products/services with relevant standards (ISO, IEC/BIS etc);

• Encourage international trade (tries to check trade malpractices);

• Prevent sale of substandard/unsafe product;

• Prevent importation of substandard products;

• Save lives and property;

• Prevent pollution of air and water;

• Conserve hard-earned foreign exchange.

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) states that ISO itself has no authority to control conformity assessment activities, whether these are business activities by its members or by other organizations. Further, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) states that private sector organizations may perform conformity assessment services as a commercial activity or regulatory bodies under a mandate may perform these services when ISO standards have been incorporated into public legislation, the aim of which is to create confidence among suppliers and their clients.

• Accreditation is a trade support tool for recognition of a level of organizational competence as per the requirements of internationally agreed standards and other benchmarks that is comparable to other conformity assessment bodies accredited by the same accrediting body.
• Accreditation of a conformity assessment body signifies that its systems and processes are under regular oversight to be competent, effective, efficient, accountable, improvement oriented and has adequate resources while providing services.
• Accredited service quality implies meeting or exceeding the international standards.