Additional information about standardization products

The information below concerns standards and other normative documents such as technical specifications (TS) and workshop agreements (WA) published by SIS. Here we refer to these documents under the umbrella term ‘standards’.

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Standardization products offered by SIS

SIS offers the five following standardization products (with designations):

  • Standard (SS),
  • Technical specification (TS),
  • Technical report (TR),
  • Workshop agreement (WA),
  • Handbook (SIS Hb).
Standard

Standards are normative documents and shall include requirements, “shall”, or recommendations, “should”, or both. A standard that only contains recommendations and no requirements is called a “guidance standard”.

All standardization products starting with the designation “SS” are Swedish standards, regardless of whether they have been drafted on the national, the European or the international level. Some of the standards offered by SIS are drafted nationally and receive the designation SS, but most of the standards offered by SIS are drafted within CEN or ISO.

Standards with the designation EN are European standards. These are always adopted as a Swedish standard and receive the designation SS-EN. Standards with the designation ISO are international standards from ISO. SIS can decide to adopt ISO standards as Swedish standard. They are then designated SS-ISO.

Many standards are adopted by CEN as well as ISO and then receive the designation SS-EN ISO in Sweden. Most Swedish standards from CEN and ISO are not translated into Swedish and are only published in English.

On our website sis.se you can also find standards from other organizations, see Standards from all over the world. 

Technical specification

Just like standards, technical specifications are normative documents and shall include requirements (‘shall’) or recommendations (‘should’), or both.

There are no differences between standards and technical specifications when it comes to the rules of their content. The differences lie in the drafting process, which is not described here. The main difference is that technical specifications are not intended to be sent for enquiry.

A technical specification can be suitable for completely new work, or work within a field that is new or under development. This enables a faster pace in the development and in subsequent revisions.

Technical specifications receive a designation depending on the organization responsible for drafting and publishing them. SIS/TS designates a nationally drafted technical specification while an ISO/TS is drafted by ISO. Similarly, a CEN/TS is drafted by CEN. When SIS publishes these technical specifications they are e.g. designated SIS-CEN/TS.

Technical report

Technical reports are informative documents. They cannot contain requirements, “shall”, recommendations, “should”, or permissions, “may”.

A technical report is suitable when the committee wants to publish information that is not suitable for a standard or a technical specification such as reports, data obtained from a survey or test results.

Technical reports may also be drafted to supplement a standard with background information and examples.

Technical reports receive a designation depending on the organization responsible for drafting and publishing them. SIS/TR designates a nationally drafted technical report while an ISO/TR is drafted by ISO. Similarly, a CEN/TR is drafted by CEN. When SIS publishes these technical reports, they are e.g. designated SIS-ISO/TR.

Workshop agreement

If there is a need to respond to urgent market requirements, and especially if there is no committee within the field, a workshop agreement can be the right product. Workshop agreements are not drafted according to the main principles of transparency, openness or consensus. A workshop agreement may be upgraded later to a technical specification or a standard by a committee, according to the main principles of standardization.

A workshop agreement is drafted by a workshop that can be started by SIS, CEN or ISO to respond to urgent market requirements. As such, a workshop agreement is not drafted by a committee.

Workshop agreements may include requirements, “shall”, or recommendations, “should”, or both.

Workshop agreements receive a designation depending on the organization responsible for drafting and publishing them. SIS-WA designates a nationally drafted workshop agreement while an IWA is drafted by ISO. Similarly, a CWA is drafted by CEN. When SIS publishes these workshop agreements they are e.g. designated SIS-IWA.

Handbook

Handbooks are intended to supplement one or more standards by creating understanding of how the standard may be applied. Handbooks can contain recommendations, tips and advice regarding the application of the standard. A handbook is a descriptive product aimed at reaching a wider audience or to promote the implementation of the standards or standards it supplements.

Handbooks are national products and have no corresponding product within CEN or ISO. They are designated SIS Hb.

 

Valid and withdrawn standards

When a Swedish standard has the status “valid” and is later updated, i.e. revised, it is published as a new edition. In SIS Subscription as well as at sis.se you can see the current status of a standard. A Swedish standard being valid means that it does not overlap with any other Swedish standard, which means that only this Swedish standard has this specific scope and content. That the standard is valid also means that SIS assumes an active responsibility for its management. This means that SIS, at predetermined intervals, ensures that it undergoes systematic reviews. Based on this review, the standard will either remain valid in the same edition (“confirmed”), updated as a new edition (“revised”) or withdrawn.

When a Swedish standard has the status “withdrawn” it is thus no longer valid, for example because the standard has been replaced by another edition of the same standard, or by another standard, or that a decision has been made by SIS that the standard is no longer relevant. A common example for a standard to be withdrawn is that a nationally drafted Swedish standard is replaced by a standard from CEN or ISO with the same scope and content that is published as Swedish standard.

When the standard is withdrawn SIS no longer manages it actively, which means no further systematic reviews will be performed. It is still possible to use a withdrawn standard, for example if a product is manufactured according to that specific standard or if a contract refers to that standard. However, it is not possible to claim compliance with a Swedish standard if a withdrawn standard is used.

If there is an interest to make a withdrawn standard valid again, and there are no other Swedish standards with the same content, please contact SIS.

If the standard has been replaced by a new edition, or another standard, you can usually see at sis.se which standard that replaces the withdrawn standard. It is also possible to search for, buy and download withdrawn standards in SIS Subscription and at sis.se.

Standards and the law

The use of standards is fundamentally voluntary, whether the standards are drafted by SIS, CEN or ISO. Standards may not conflict with legislation or include requirements that legislation must be complied with. Users of standards are expected to comply with legislation.

However, standards may contain information about relevant legislation in the area or areas that they standardize. Standards may also be used as a tool to comply with legislation. Standards can be cited in legislation, contracts or other contexts and thus become binding. An important exception to the voluntary use of standards are the Eurocode standards (Swedish), which are mandatory to conform with.

Furthermore, standards shall not contain contractual requirements.

Provisions in standards

The categories of provisions which are used in standardization are described below. 

  • Requirement
    A requirement is an expression that conveys what needs to be fulfilled if conformance with the document is to be claimed. A requirement is stated using shall (or shall not).
  • Recommendation
    A recommendation is an expression that conveys a suggested possible choice or course of action deemed to be particularly suitable without necessarily mentioning or excluding others. A recommendation is given using should (or should not).
  • Instruction
    Instructions are expressed in the imperative mood and are used to convey an action to be performed, for instance "Place the piece in the chamber".
  • Statement
    A statement is an expression that conveys information. A statement can express permission, possibility or capability. Permission is indicated with may. Possibility and capability are expressed with can (or cannot).
  • External constraint
    In addition to the above categories of provisions, it is also possible to provide information in the form of what are termed external constraints. An external constraint is a constraint or obligation, for example due to statutory and regulatory requirements or laws of nature, which is not stated as a provision in the standard. External constraints are referred to with must.

More information is available in Läs- och skrivanvisningar för regler i standarder (Swedish).

Conformity assessment

When assessing conformity, it must be checked that the requirements of a product, process, service, person, system or organization are met. Conformity can be assessed by a manufacturer or supplier (first party), a user or purchaser (second party) or an independent organization (third party).

Conformity is assessed against requirements, and it is therefore not possible to use standards that do not contain requirements for this purpose.

Standards that contain requirements are written in line with the neutrality principle, such that conformity can be assessed by a first, second or third party.

Committees wishing to specify conformity assessment requirements shall do so in a separate document. This is called the separation principle.

Read more about how conformity assessment can be attested through certification (Swedish).

More information how conformity assessment can be certifyed through verification or validation (Swedish).

Technical barriers to trade and the World Trade Organization principles

The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) is part of the WTO Agreement and seeks to ensure that unnecessary barriers to trade are not created or maintained. Standardization is covered by the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade and Sweden has undertaken to comply with the agreement. Annex III to the agreement, Code of Good Practice for the Preparation, Adoption and Application of Standards, is particularly relevant to the work of SIS.

Read more about the agreement of technical barriers to trade on WTO's website.

Standardization applies the following principles linked to the agreement:

  • Transparency
  • Openness
  • Impartiality and consensus
  • Relevance and effectiveness
  • Coordination with other standardization organizations

For more information about these principles, see Annex 4 in the WTO review of the implementation of the agreement.