Skip to content

Characteristic

1 Definition

Distinguishing Feature

Notes

  • A characteristic can be inherent or assigned.
  • A characteristic can be qualitative or quantitative.
  • There are various classes of characteristics, such as the following:
  • physical (e.g. mechanical, electrical, chemical, biological);
  • sensory (e.g. relating to smell, touch, taste, sight, hearing);
  • behavioural (e.g. courtesy, honesty, veracity);
  • temporal (e.g. punctuality, reliability, availability);
  • ergonomic (e.g. physiological characteristic or related to human safety);
  • functional (e.g. maximum speed of an aircraft).

Examples

Sources

  • ISO 9000:2005, 3.5.1

2 Definition

Abstraction of a Property of an Object or of a set of objects.

Notes

  • Characteristics are used for describing concepts.

Examples

Sources

  • ISO 1087-1:2000, 3.2.4; ISO 19146:2010(E); https://www.iso.org/standard/20057.html