Content Description

 ISO/IEC Guide 17:2016 provides guidance and recommendations to writers of standards on the needs of micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in order to avoid the exclusion of SMEs from the market and the distortion of fair competition.

 ISO/IEC Guide 17:2016 is relevant to all stakeholders involved in standardization, i.e. standards writers in working groups (WGs), technical committees (TCs), project committees (PCs), or subcommittees (SCs) as well as members of national mirror committees. Not all principles presented in this Guide necessarily have to apply to all standards. Furthermore, sector-specific questions might not be covered. TCs, PCs, SCs and WGs are best placed to evaluate how to address the specific needs of SMEs in their standards.

 ISO/IEC Guide 17:2016 contains:

 a) considerations for the development of standards that are best adapted to SMEs' needs;

 b) techniques for identifying and assessing provisions in standards that may especially impact SMEs;

 c) ways to reduce negative impacts on SMEs resulting from some provisions in standards;

 d) guidelines for writing SME friendly standards;

 e) a checklist;

 f) information on the impact that new standards can have on micro enterprises.

 NOTE In this Guide, the term "standard" includes all ISO/IEC deliverables.

About IEC

The IEC is a global, not-for-profit membership organization, whose work underpins quality infrastructure and international trade in electrical and electronic goods. The IEC facilitates technical innovation, affordable infrastructure development, efficient and sustainable energy access, smart urbanization and transportation systems, climate change mitigation, and increases the safety of people and the environment.

The IEC brings together ~170 countries and provides a global, neutral and independent standardization and conformity assessment platform for 30 000 experts globally. It administers 4 Conformity assessment systems whose members certify that devices, systems, installations, services and people work as required.

The IEC publishes around 10 000 IEC International Standards which together with conformity assessment provide the technical framework that allows governments to build national quality infrastructure and companies of all sizes to buy and sell consistently safe and reliable products in most countries of the world. IEC International Standards serve as the basis for risk and quality management and are used in testing and certification to verify that manufacturer promises are kept.