General requirements for the competence of testing laboratories and their implementation

Abstract

This paper explains general requirements that testing laboratories should fulfill in order to confirm their competence in the certain field of testing according to the international standard ISO/IEC 17025. The requirements of the standard are separated in two main groups: management requirements and technical requirements. Management requirements can be implemented in the similar way in many testing laboratories, since they consider elements, common for all business systems. A laboratory should pay special attention to the fulfillment of technical requirements. In addition to the requirements of the standard, within each test area exist other applicable legislation. Each laboratory should establish its own goals and needs taking into account the requirements of business environment and legislative that has to be implemented.