ISO 10576-1:2002 sets out guidelines for drafting requirements that may be formulated as limiting values for a quantifiable characteristic and for checking conformity to such requirements when the test or measurement result is subject to uncertainty.

It is applicable whenever the uncertainty may be quantified according to the principles laid down in the Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement. The term uncertainty is thus a descriptor for all elements of variation in the measurement result, including uncertainty due to sampling.

It is outside the scope of ISO 10576-1:2002 to give rules for how to act when an inconclusive result of a conformity test has been obtained.