ISO 17025 Terminology Guide

ISO 17025: An international standard that spells out general requirements for the competence of testing and
calibration laboratories.

Accreditation: Third-party attestation related to laboratory conveying formal demonstration of its

competence to carry out specific testing / calibration activities.
Note: Accreditation is an honor held by an Accreditation Body which is normally one in a country (like PNAC)

Records: Records are materials created or received by an organization and that are preserved as evidence of
the activities of the organization or for its information value.

Technical Records: Technical records are accumulations of data and information which result from carrying
out tests or calibrations and which indicate whether specified quality or process parameters are achieved.

Non-conformance: Anything that is not conforming to the requirements / specifications of ISO 17025 standard
or the procedures and policies laid by Laboratory.

Root Cause Analysis: If an unwanted situation which consumes resources and tends to happen in a repeated
fashion exists, it is beneficial for the laboratory to figure out what is really causing this situation to occur and
remove it so the situation does not occur again. This is generally referred to as Root Cause Analysis, finding
the real cause of the problem and dealing with it rather than simply continuing to deal with the symptoms.

Complaints: Complaints are objections, errors, or non-conformities involving work quality, or failures to
provide service or other requests of the customer including timeliness. Complaints can provide valuable
feedback on the effectiveness of the organization and can be used to improve the organization with the
customer in mind.

Accommodation: This refers to space in the laboratory area and how it is suited for the work performed.

Calibration: Calibration is the set of operations, under specified conditions, establishing the relationship
between values of quantities by a measuring instrument or measuring system, or values represented by a
material measure or reference material, and the corresponding values realized by standards.

Measuring instruments: This includes balance, pH meter, spectrophotometer, thermometer etc.

Physical standards: Physical standards include reference weights and reference thermometers.

Reference Standard: A reference standard usually has the highest metrological quality found at a given
location in a given organization, from which measurements made there are derived. Generally, this refers to
recognized national or international traceable standards.

Accuracy: It is the nearness of a measurement to the accepted or true value

Precision: It is a measure of how close together the measurements are, not how close they are to the correct
or true value

Measurement uncertainty: The measurement of uncertainty is the parameter associated with the result of a
measurement that characterized the dispersion of the values that could be reasonably attributed to the
measurand.

Measurand: The quantity being measured.

 ISO 17025 Terminology Guide

Confidence Level: The confidence level is the number that is multiplied by the uncertainty to produce an
uncertainty estimate that will contain a large fraction of all values that might be obtained on a test. The
confidence interval is commonly noted as k, k=1 is used for 66.7 % confidence (not suitable for laboratory
environmental) and k=2 is used for 95% confidence, and k=3 for 99% confidence.

Expanded uncertainty (UE): The expanded uncertainty is the combined uncertainty (or standard uncertainty, if
there is only one component), multiplied by the confidence level.

Repeatability conditions: Identical samples prepared at the same time, by the same analyst, under identical
conditions, run on the same instruments are repeatability conditions.

Reproducibility conditions: Reproducibility conditions are identical samples analyzed under different
conditions, including any of these: different times, different equipment, different analysts, or different
Laboratory.

Interlaboratory comparison: Organization, performance and evaluation of measurements or tests on the

same or similar items by two or more laboratories in accordance with predetermined conditions

Proficiency testing: Evaluation of participant performance against pre-established criteria by means of

interlaboratory comparisons. The term “proficiency testing” is taken in its widest sense and includes, but is
not limited to:
a) Quantitative scheme — where the objective is to quantify one or more measurands of the proficiency test
item
b) Qualitative scheme — where the objective is to identify or describe one or more characteristics of the
proficiency test item
c) Sequential scheme — where one or more proficiency test items are distributed sequentially for testing or
measurement and returned to the proficiency testing provider at intervals
d) Simultaneous scheme — where proficiency test items are distributed for concurrent testing or
measurement within a defined time period

Proficiency test item: Sample, product, artefact, reference material, piece of equipment, measurement
standard used for proficiency testing

Proficiency testing provider: Organization which takes responsibility for all tasks in the development and
operation of a proficiency testing scheme

Proficiency testing round: Single complete sequence of distribution of proficiency test items, and the
evaluation and reporting of results to the participants

Proficiency testing scheme: Proficiency testing designed and operated in one or more rounds for a specified
area of testing, measurement, calibration or inspection.
NOTE A proficiency testing scheme might cover a particular type of test, calibration, inspection or a number of
tests, calibrations or inspections on proficiency test items.

Blind sample: a randomly coded sample that cannot be identified except for its random code.