Publicatie van de Maand: September 2000 (1) |
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ISO-BULLETIN, September 1999 (Briefings)
Business
plans of ISO technical committees
Now the public can help to shape ISO standards
ISO is offering both the general public and special interest groups an
opportunity to influence the direction of the hundreds of
International Standards developed each year which affect so many
aspects of our daily lives, usually without us being aware of them.
ISO is opening the business plans which will be guiding the standards'
development work of its technical committees to public scrutiny and
comment by posting them on the Web: http://www.iso.ch/bp
So far, draft business plans of 10 technical committees covering
standardization in the following areas are available for consultation:
health care, dentistry, fire safety, nuclear energy, textiles,
mechanical engineering, caravans and cutlery.
As the business plans of ISO's 188 technical committees become
available between now and the end of the year, anyone will be able to
consult them and provide comments and input by e-mail to the committee
secretariats.
ISO and International Standards
ISO has published more than 12700 International Standards. Its work
programme ranges from standards for traditional activities, such as
agriculture and construction, through mechanical engineering,
manufacturing and medical devices, to the newest information
technology developments, such as the digital coding of audio-visual
signals for multimedia applications.
ISO standards are developed by technical committees comprising experts
from the industrial, technical and business sectors which have asked
for the standards, and which subsequently put them to use. These
experts may be joined by others with relevant knowledge, such as
representatives of government agencies, testing laboratories, consumer
associations, environmentalists, and so on.
The experts participate as national delegations, chosen by the ISO
national member institute for the country concerned. These delegations
are required to represent not just the views of the organizations in
which their participating experts work, but of national stakeholders
as a whole. According to ISO rules, the member institute is expected
to take account of the views of the range of parties interested in the
standard under development and to present a consolidated, national
consensus position to the technical committee. In addition, there is,
in many countries, a public review process of ISO draft standards in
order to prepare the national position on them.
Despite these measures to make the development process of standards
transparent and to obtain input from parties with a direct interest,
members of the general public and certain stakeholder groups - such as
consumer associations - do not make sufficient use of the existing
channels.
The function of business plans
Therefore, ISO is seizing the opportunity created by a combination of
the introduction of business plans and the possibilities offered by
information and communication technologies (ICT) to allow individuals
and stakeholder groups with reduced resources to know what is going on
within ISO and to comment or provide input.
Putting the business plans of ISO's technical committees on the Web is
also intended to encourage more input from the business, industrial
and governmental users of ISO standards who will be able to comment
directly to the experts developing standards for their sectors.
ISO launched the business plan programme to ensure a seamless fit
between the standards it develops and the standards needed by the
market, as well as to avoid wasting resources by developing standards
for which there is little requirement.
The business plans will analyse condition and trends in the market
sector served by the technical committee and will be required
explicitly to link work programmes and sector needs. This exercise is
expected to generate clear priorities for which standards are needed,
the target dates for their completion and what resources are needed to
do the job
Identifying priorities, resources and benefits is important to the ISO
system because the major part of the cost of developing standards is
borne by the sector that want the standards.
A fundamental aim is to demonstrate objectively the specific benefits
which the work undertaken by each technical committee will bring to
the business sector it serves. Such benefits may be economic (cost
saving, shorter time to market, easier market access, lower sales
prices), social (improved safety for workers), or societal (reduced
environmental pollution, less waste of finite resources).
The business plans are intended to become a focus for ISO's
relationship with its partners and users. By further improving the
alignment of the standards that ISO develops with market needs, the
business plan will help to ensure that ISO makes the best use of its
resources - human, technological and financial. |
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