How are standards developed? Through what steps is a standard created?

The ins and outs of standards development

Standards are not quickly drafted documents. It takes about three years for a standard to see the light of day. They are developed by the people who use them, in four steps. And each step involves those stakeholders – our ‘experts’.

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Standards development: the birth of a standard

Standards development, or standardisation, is the process of arriving at a standard. This process is open, transparent and consensus-based. It takes place in standards committees made up of experts. Standards are thus created in working groups in which specialists within the same field consider a specific subject.

^{Find out who is involved in this process}

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The 4 steps of standards development

A standard is created in 4 stages: proposal, draft, public enquiry and publication.

Standard proposal

The development of a new standard starts with a proposal. Companies, governments, federations, sectors, NGOs, consumer organisations ... anyone can submit a proposal. This is done at CEN, ISO or NBN.

Standard design

Is the proposal accepted? Then a standards committee or technical committee considers the standard. It works to create a draft standard, together with the national standardisation bodies. For Belgium, this is NBN, together with its sectoral operators.

Did you know...

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...a standards draft is recognizable by its name: Belgian standards drafts start with the code prNBN, European ones with prEN and international ones with ISO/DIS.

Public enquiry

Anyone can provide feedback on the draft standard. The standards committee reviews all comments and modifies the draft standard.

Wondering how to make your voice heard during the public enquiry process?

Published

Have all comments been processed and has the draft standard been modified and approved? Next comes the official recognition and publication of the new standard. It is then available in our standards platform.

An overview of standards projects

1. What are standards projects?

Standards projects are the standards committees’ work programmes. They are an overview of the standards the committees are in the process of developing. Standards projects also show which stage of development the standards are at.

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2. Where do you find the overview?

The Belgian standards projects the NBN is mapping.
CEN follows up on European standards projects.
European electrical engineering standards projects sit with CENELEC.
International standards projects are looked after by ISO.
IEC keeps track of international electrical engineering standards projects.
The standards projects around European telecommunications keep track of ETSI.
Standards projects around international telecommunications can be found at ITU-T

As an innovative sensor manufacturer, we are always looking for new technologies to optimize the operation and safety of automatic doors. Our mission during the working group meetings of the international and European standardisation committees? To explain what sensors can do today. In this way, we want to continuously improve existing standards and complement them with new technological solutions.

Laurent Sarlette
Chief Marketing Officer at BEA, an international manufacturer of sensor solutions for automatic door systems

Would you like to help develop standards yourself? But would you rather learn more about it first? Then follow the Webinar "Standardization - The basics". Here we give you more insight of what standards development is.

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