Summary Description
ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the world's largest developer and publisher of International Standards.
ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 159 countries, one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system.
ISO is a non-governmental organization that forms a bridge between the public and private sectors. On the one hand, many of its member institutes are part of the governmental structure of their countries, or are mandated by their government. On the other hand, other members have their roots uniquely in the private sector, having been set up by national partnerships of industry associations.
Therefore, ISO enables a consensus to be reached on solutions that meet both the requirements of business and the broader needs of society.
Source: http://www.iso.org/iso/about.htm
Aim & Objectives
Developing and publishing international standards that represent a consensus on solutions that meet both the requirements of business and the broader needs of society.
Standards ensure desirable characteristics of products and services such as quality, environmental friendliness, safety, reliability, efficiency and interchangeability - and at an economical cost. (http://www.iso.org/iso/about/discover-iso_why-standards-matter.htm )
Claims & Core Values
Form a bridge between the public and private sectors.
The global standards setting process should meet the attributes Openness, Consensus, Balance and Transparency1
Participation in Interactions
What role does the organisation play in interactions (preferably as identified and listed in the interaction dictionary: www.interaction-dictionary.info )
Contracts and Constraints
Policies and guidance is provided at http://www.iso.org/iso/standards_development/governance_of_technical_work/global_relevance_policy.htm
(including Policy on Global Relevance, Implementation Guidance, Messages for committee leaders and participants)
Strategic Themes
Consistency and global relevance of the International Standards
Completeness and coherence of the ISO deliverables range
Strategic Plans
The Technical Management Board Business Plan 2005-2010 (August 2007)2 lists these seven Key Strategic Objectives:
- Developing a consistent and multi-sector collection of globally relevant International Standards
- Ensuring the involvement of stakeholders
- Raising the awareness and capacity of developing countries
- Being open to partnerships for the efficient development of International Standards
- Promoting the use of voluntary standards as an alternative or as a support to technical regulations
- Being the recognized provider of International Standards relating to conformity assessment
- Providing efficient procedures and tools for the development of a coherent and complete range of deliverables
Roles & Resources
The structure of ISO is described here: http://www.iso.org/iso/structure
Detailed descriptions are available at: http://www.iso.org/iso/standards_development.htm
Information Systems
Which information systems support the organisations contribution to the interactions in which in participates?
Operations
The production and publishing of 6 kinds of deliverables:
- ISO Standard
- ISO/PAS Publicly available specification
- ISO/TS Technical specification
- ISO/TR Technical report
- International Workshop Agreement (IWA)
- | ISO Guide
following the procedure that is described here: http://www.iso.org/iso/about/how_iso_develops_standards.htm
Monitoring & Evaluation
The technical work is carried out under the overall management of the Technical Management Board.
Details at:
http://www.iso.org/iso/standards_development/governance_of_technical_work.htm
The tasks of the Technical Management Board are described here: http://www.iso.org/iso/standards_development/governance_of_technical_work/technical_management_board.htm
Change
The ISO Statutes stipulate that, while the General Assembly is the ultimate authority of the Organization, most of the governance functions of ISO are performed by the Council in accordance with the policy laid down by the member bodies. The Council meets twice a year and its membership is rotated to ensure that it is representative of ISO's membership.
More details at: http://www.iso.org/iso/about/governance_and_operations.htm
Issues
What are the current issues?
What past issues have been resolved recently?
Related Bodies and Agencies
Members
ISO members are listed here: http://www.iso.org/iso/about/iso_members.htm
Committees and Developers
Technical Committees: http://www.iso.org/iso/standards_development/technical_committees.htm
Developers of standards: supporting information at: http://www.iso.org/iso/standards_development/contacts.htm
Patent holders
Patent holders (for the relationship, see http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink/fetch/2000/2122/3770791/customview.html?func=ll&objId=3770791&objAction=browse )
Regulatory authorities
Regulatory authorities: these may use and reference ISO and other standards for technical regulations (details: http://www.standardsinfo.net/info/livelink/fetch/2000/148478/6301438/standards_regulations.html )
