[Conformance] Definition of Compliance vs. conformance

Hi all,

After the meeting I was addressing some input from a colleague on 
definitions and what is already defined and available in ISO and IEC 
standards.  Since standards harmonization is a definite concern, it seems 
there's a variety of usage and definition of "Compliance", "Comply", 
"Conformance", Conform" and in ISO and IEC standards there are multiple 
instances where the definition of one of these terms includes the other 
term. So I'm not sure how successful we will be trying to tease apart 
terms that have been clearly used interchangeably for a while.

Here's a link to the ISO standards page where you can perform a search on 
terms to see how they are defined and in what standards they are defined. 
ISO Online Browsing Platform (OBP) https://www.iso.org/obp/ui and select 
the Terms & Definitions radio button 
IEC maintains its own platform, similar to ISO 
https://www.electropedia.org/ and check the Search also in definitions 
checkbox.  For example: 

For example from an IEC Internet of Things standard:

compliance




characteristic of conformance to rules, such as those defined by a law, a 
regulation, a standard, or a policy

So maybe we should just concede that these are used interchangeably and 
use this definition.

Best regards,

Mary Jo
_____________________________________________
Mary Jo Mueller
Accessibility Standards Program Manager
IBM Accessibility



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