Paragraph 7.7.1 of the ISO 17025:2017 is about the monitoring of the validity of results. The following sentence is written in the standard (English version): ‘This monitoring shall be planned and reviewed and shall include, where appropriate, but not be limited to:’
How shall we interpret this clause? Does the monitoring has to be done when it is appropriate for the test for all the relevant points (a to k) that are described in the standard or can the monitoring be done for only some of the relevant points (for instance, only point a and b, the other points should then not be done)?
Moreover, the French version seems to be less strict than the English version: ‘Cette surveillance doit être planifiée et revue et peut inclure le cas échéant, sans s’y limiter, les pratiques suivantes:’
They have “may include” instead of “shall include”
There is now a long list of possible activities. This was deliberate, in order to provoke thought about what a laboratory might do. These are more examples than explicit individual requirements.Somew overlap or duplicate others.
«appropriate» is the clue here. That is taken to be when it is suitable, a good choice amongst others, available, effective, good value, representative, meaningful etc.
The choice may be affected by the activities chosen under external meaures (cl 7.7.2) as some are more or less effective in detecting systematic (bias) rather than just random (often just SD) components of uncertainty.
We should be assessing that the laboratory has a valid and considered approach to internal and external QA activities.