Technical standards (standards, from English standard) are technical documents issued by standardization organizations, which establish requirements, test conditions, characteristics or guidelines on products, manufacturing or management processes, environmental aspects, etc. May include terms and definitions; component classification; procedures, specification of dimensions, materials, technical characteristics or performance; aspects related to the quality of products, services or organizations; test methods; etc In Industry Law 21/1992[1] of Spain it is defined as follows:

They contain technical specifications for voluntary application, as opposed to the requirements established in laws or regulations published by Public Administrations, which may be mandatory for certain purposes or situations. However, sometimes the administration uses the term norm to refer to its publications, although in that case it would not correspond to the concept of this article. As an example, Standard 3.1-IC Highway Layout[2]​ of Spain.

Technical standards published by standardization organizations have the following characteristics:

The standards offer a common point of communication language between companies, public administration, users and consumers. The standards establish a socioeconomic balance between the different agents that participate in commercial transactions, the basis of any market economy, and are a necessary pattern of trust between client and supplier.

Countries edit their national standards, which may be adopted from other international or regional ones. As an example, in Spain they are published as UNE Standards.

National standards bodies

Countries usually have one or more recognized standardization bodies, depending on the subject. Here are some examples:

International standards bodies

At the international or regional level, there are several standardization bodies, generally made up of national bodies.

Internationally:

At the regional level: