Primer on Engineering Standards

Chapter 7Types of Standards

7.1 Introduction

Standards are written differently depending on the culture of the organization developing them, the product or process they are defining, the capabilities of the organization implementing them, and other factors. There are numerous ways in which they can be categorized. Some of these were noted briefly in Chapter 1, and this chapter will address them in more detail. Some of these categorization approaches have been formalized in standards themselves, while some are used simply because they are helpful in understanding and approaching standards, whether for their use or their development. ISO/IEC Guide 2, Standardization and related activities – General Vocabulary, offers a number of useful ways of looking at standards, some of which are included in the following list.

7.2 Performance versus Prescriptive

7.2.1 Performance Standards

Performance standards are those that are written to define what must be accomplished. Writing a standard in this way allows the implementing organization a great deal of flexibility in how it chooses to comply. There are benefits to this approach, especially in those cases where the interfaces are minimal and what must be accomplished is easy to define. The risk is that not enough thought may be given to what is actually needed, and certain critical aspects of the product (process, etc.) may be left out of the standard. In this case, a fully compliant product may be produced and yet not fulfill what ...