A technical standard includes the definition of terms, classification of components, and delineation of procedures. It also covers the specification of dimensions, materials, performance, designs, or operations. Measurement of quality and quantity in describing materials, processes, products, systems, services, or practices are part of a technical standard, as are test methods and sampling procedures, or descriptions of fit and measurements of size or strength.
In contrast to a formal document, a custom, convention, company product, or corporate standard that becomes generally accepted and dominant is often called a de facto standard. A technical standard may be developed privately or unilaterally, for example by a corporation, regulatory body, or military. Standards can also be developed by groups such as trade unions and trade associations. Standards organizations often have more diverse input and usually develop voluntary standards; these might become mandatory if adopted by a government or business contract. The standardization process may be by edict or may involve the formal consensus of technical experts.
The primary types of technical standards include a standard specification, which is an explicit set of requirements for an item, material, component, system or service. A standard test method describes a definitive procedure that produces a test result. A standard practice or procedure gives a set of instructions for performing operations or functions. A standard guide provides general information or options that do not require a specific course of action. A standard definition is formally established terminology, and standard units, in physics and applied mathematics, are commonly accepted measurements of physical quantities.
When a geographically defined community must solve a community-wide coordination problem, it can adopt an existing standard or produce a new one. The main geographic levels are national, regional, and international standards. Establishing national, regional, or international standards is one way of overcoming technical barriers in inter-local or inter-regional commerce caused by differences among technical regulations and standards developed independently. The existence of a published standard does not imply that it is always useful or correct. Standards often get reviewed, revised, and updated on a regular basis, and it is critical that the most current version of a published standard be used or referenced.
Private standards are developed by private entities such as companies, non-governmental organizations, or private sector multi-stakeholder initiatives. In the development of a technical standard, private standards adopt a non-consensus process in comparison to voluntary consensus standards. Private standards typically require a financial contribution in terms of an annual fee from the organizations who adopt the standard. Corporations are encouraged to join the board of governance of the standard owner, which enables reciprocity, meaning corporations have permission to exert influence over the requirements in the standard.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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