In essence, standards provide codified knowledge regarding materials, technologies, products and services, components, test methods, processes and much more.
They are the result of an agreement among the interested and concerned parties (stakeholders) and incorporate the distilled knowledge of experts in their subject matter, contributing to:
- ensuring that products and services are safe, reliable and of good quality
- the adoption of good practices by organizations, (e.g. for organizing and managing processes)
Standards are an essential element of the infrastructure of industrial societies

Standards ensure (among others):
- reliable measurement and testing
- interchangeability of parts
- interoperability of components
- codification of knowledge: characteristics and properties of materials and products, structure and organization of processes
- objective criteria and methods to assess health and safety requirements and environmental impact