Product Traceability and Uncertainty documents

Product Traceability and Uncertainty (PTU) documents represent a consistent metrological (measurement science) based approach to understanding measurement systems and their processing. The key foundation is a traceability diagram that fully outlines the processing steps from SI units or internationally agreed standards to the final reported measurement. These chains comprehensively identify all steps in the processing chain. Then, each step in that chain is described in turn under an effects table that describes key facets of the uncertainty associated with the processing step (magnitude, shape, means of verification). A fully traceable product must have all relevant steps that are recognised to contribute to the uncertainty documented in this manner. Each PTU document ends with a summary as to whether such a status has been attained and with recommendations for future work. These approaches have been co-developed with the FIDUCEO project and should allow cross-comparison.