International Workshop Agreement (IWA)

In a related move, the ISO Council has decided to add another mechanism to ISO’s armoury for providing normative documents which will not rely on the customary technical committee structures. Essentially this will be through an open workshop mechanism whereby market players will be able to negotiate in a workshop setting the contents of particular normative documents. The results of such workshops would lead to the publication of documents designated as International Workshop Agreement (IWA). An IWA represents then a technical document developed by a workshop outside of the technical structure of ISO with administrative support from a designated member body. The publication of these documents will include an indication of the participating organizations involved in the development of an IWA.

The main benefit of the workshop mechanism is that it enables a more rapid response to requirements for standardization in areas where ISO does not have existing technical structures or experts. The IWA essentially gets a normative document into the marketplace relatively quickly with the opportunity that it will soon establish itself as a de facto standard; the option then exists of transforming it into a full International Standard at a later stage.

While due process remains a fundamental concept to all of ISO’s activities, it is hoped that these new procedures and deliverables will demonstrate ISO’s willingness to be flexible and responsive to world requirements for technical standards.

Not only should this arsenal of new deliverables help to ensure the relevance of ISO’s International Standards on all fronts by responding to current market requirements; if these new types of document help obtain wider diffusion and spread of information and knowledge on new or upcoming areas of technology, thereby strengthening links between standardization and the world of research, then they will be providing an added – ancillary – bonus.