ISO 17025 is the equivalent of ISO 9000 for calibration and testing laboratories. It applies to any organization that wants to assure its customers of precision, accuracy and repeatability of results. This includes in-house laboratories for which assurance of results is at a premium.
QS 9000, the Automotive Quality Management System, and its successor, TS16949, have stipulated that first-tier suppliers of calibration and test services be ISO 17025 certified, and that suppliers upstream of them be compliant.

ISO 17025 addresses every element of laboratory management. It is not exclusive to the laboratory manager, assistant laboratory manager, or quality manager. The standard involves all laboratory staff whose functions relate to the quality of laboratory data generated. The ISO management system will provide a defined, ordered process for operating all facts of a laboratory. The laboratory community throughout the world has expressed, through the International Organization for Standardization, the essential elements for a laboratory management system in the text of ISO 17025. That document provides the nucleus for most laboratory accreditation programs today. ISO 17025 provides the framework for a Quality Management System for a testing or calibration laboratory.