ISO/IEC 17021 Conformity assessment — Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems, as it is officially called, was prepared by the ISO Committee on conformity assessment (CASCO) in 2006. It was developed to fulfill the need to have an International Standard that could facilitate the recognition of bodies that were performing conformity assessments and the acceptance of their certifications on a national and international basis; making it easier to recognize management system certification in the interests of international trade.