Conformity Assessment

Conformity assessment refers to activities that demonstrate whether the prescribed requirements for a product, process, system, personnel, or institution are met, and the areas include testing, inspection, product certification, management system certification, and personnel certification (certification for a person's specific qualification). As products and services become more technologically complex, demonstrating compliance with standards and other criteria attaches importance to consumer confidence. Conformity assessment is therefore an essential part of economic business, standards, and conformance infrastructure.

ISO/IEC 17029

ISO/IEC 17029 is a standard that stipulates general principles and requirements for competence, consistent operation, and impartiality of bodies performing Validation/Verification as conformity assessment activities. Bodies operating according to ISO/IEC 17029 can provide Validation/Verification as a first-party, second-party or third-party activity. Bodies can be Validation Bodies only, Verification Bodies only, or provide both activities. Also, ISO/IEC 17029 can be used as a basis for accreditation by Accreditation Bodies, peer assessment within peer assessment groups, or other forms of recognition of Validation/Verification Bodies by international or regional organizations, governments, regulatory authorities, programme owners, industry bodies, companies, clients or consumers.

Validation and Verification

According to ISO/IEC 17029, Validation and Verification differ in how they relate in time to the data being verified :

• •   Validation is confirmation of a claim, through the provision of objective evidence, that the requirements for a specific intended future use or application have been fulfilled. So, validation involves assumptions for checking plausibility such as statements and data relating to the future, and predicted or simulated data relating to an intended application.
  For example, if an organization claims that water consumption can be reduced by 50% with its products, the claim can be valid if the simulation model for that product shows the predicted reduction.
• •   Verification is confirmation of a claim, through the provision of objective evidence, that specified requirements have been fulfilled. So, verification involves historical real data that is checked for its truthfulness.
  For example, if an organization reports to have reduced actual water consumption by 50% compared to the previous year using its products, the report can verify that certain requirements have been met with objective evidence.

Applications of ISO/IEC 17029

ISO/IEC 17029 applies to construction technology, energy management, financial management, industrial automation systems, software and systems engineering, artificial intelligence, information technology, healthcare products and medical devices, machine safety, safety and design engineering, social responsibility, etc. In particular, it will be applied to more diverse fields by providing a method to validate and verify new social needs such as environment, energy and ESG management according to standardized procedures.