Assessment

Once we have reached an agreement with the software provider on the technical, administrative, and financial details of the certification, we assess the software’s ability to create ISO 24896-compliant charts [and tables].

The assessment is carried out in two stages: compliance with ISO 24896 and ease of use. Upon successful completion of both stages, the software is awarded a certification seal, which may be used for marketing purposes.

Compliance with ISO 24896

Software providers demonstrate compliance by creating five predefined IBCS chart templates (C12 and C13 are mandatory) and four IBCS table templates (if table certification is also requested) using the software to be certified. These templates are then evaluated. The template designs and evaluation criteria are based on ISO 24896 Notation for business reporting. The templates were developed by the IBCS Institute in cooperation with the IBCS Association.

The templates created by the providers using their standard software are evaluated against transparent criteria. These cover the notation of business meaning (terms, measures, representation of time, time-series analyses, deviations, and structure) and the design of report components (page layout, text elements, highlighting, scaling, chart types, visualization elements, legends, labels, and axes).

The software passes Stage 1 (A) of the assessment if each template achieves at least 70% of the possible evaluation points, with each knock-out criterion achieving a score of at least 50%. The knock-out criteria focus on the semantically correct visualization of scenarios, comparisons, and deviations; the design of text elements; correct scaling; and the selection of the appropriate chart layout.

Ease of use

Stage 2 assesses the ease of creating the predefined templates for the first time and making subsequent changes, rather than the level of compliance achieved. The evaluation considers, for example, the time and effort required, ease of use, and error rate when creating ISO 24896-compliant charts [and tables], supplying them with data, modifying them, and distributing them to report recipients. The resulting score indicates the expected level of user satisfaction.

The templates should be created using the software’s standard functions without requiring programming. The software does not pass Stage 2 if more than 30% of the functions required to create the templates are not available to users as standard functions.

Certification and advertisement

Once the assessment has been successfully completed, the provider is awarded the IBCS ISO 24896 Certified Charts [and Tables] certification seal for the software. The seal indicates whether charts only or both charts and tables have been certified and includes the provider name, the certified software product and version, and the month and year of certification.

In addition to using the certification seal, the provider may use the designation IBCS ISO 24896 Certified Charts [and Tables] in connection with the certified software. If needed, this may be accompanied by the following statement: “IBCS Institute confirms that ISO 24896-compliant charts [and tables] can be created with [SOFTWARE, VERSION].”

Use of the certification seal is limited to the certified version (or major release) of the provider’s software. When a new major release is introduced, the seal may only be used after the software has been successfully recertified. If the provider does not use major releases but continuously introduces smaller changes to the software, the certification remains valid for a maximum of 24 months.

Unsuccessful assessments are treated confidentially.

Certified software products are presented on the IBCS website, where providers also have the opportunity to present their company and product.

In addition, successful certifications are announced in the IBCS Newsletter, which reaches more than 10,000 recipients.