Who is ISO?

The International Organization for Standardization is a specialized international agency responsible for global standardization. They are responsible for harmonization of many standards (not just ISO 9000 and quality assurance), for instance, optical character recognition, (so all the banks across the world can read each others checks, perhaps), camera film speed (ISO number), building products and many more.

Interestingly, the term ISO is not and acronym of “International Standards Organization”. It comes from the Greek work for equal and is used commonly in words like Isosceles (triangle with equal sides) and Isobar (line linking points of equal pressure).

The organization is made up of the national standards bodies of about 100 countries. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is the member body representing the United States.

The work of developing and agreeing on standards is carried out by some 180 Technical Committees. Each Technical Committee is responsible for one of many areas of specialization ranging from asbestos to zinc. Technical Committee TC 176 is responsible for developing quality assurance standards. Much of the work is completed by sub-committees, the members of which are voted on by the larger Technical Committee (TC). They develop draft documents and publish them for comment. Each country sends representatives from their National Standards organization to meetings for votes and for commenting on the drafts. Drafts evolve until the members of the TC vote to progress them to formal standards. These national representatives, back in their own countries, usually liaise with established groups of hundreds of people who also comment, advise and help the representatives form their opinions. Overall the standards are the combined opinions of thousands and thousands of people and are consequently quite good.