It is a complement to the ISO 9000 series of standards. It defines terms related to quality. Clarifies and standardizes quality terms applicable to the field of quality management. The need to use standardized terminology to avoid misunderstandings or confusion forced the development of an auxiliary standard that would specify terms and concepts.

The ISO 8402 standard defines the basic and fundamental terms related to quality concepts, applicable to all fields.

The ISO 8402 standard was released in 1986. It defines quality as "the set of characteristics of an entity that gives it the ability to satisfy established and implicit needs." It could also be said to be the "conformity with requirements" and the "degree of excellence", quality being understood as customer satisfaction.

The concept of quality encompasses not only how the demands of its customers are met but also the way in which it is done, such as how quickly they are served.

Simplifying this term cannot be a bad thing since they cannot understand what it really refers to, anticipating them will result in a visible advantage over the competition.

The ISO 8402 standard was replaced in 2000 by the ISO 9000 standard.

The quality policy must be: