TS EN ISO 56000

TS EN ISO 56000 is a vocabulary and conceptual framework standard for innovation management. It treats innovation management not as a narrow idea-generation exercise, but as the structured process of selecting, developing and connecting ideas to organizational goals. Its central value is to give different stakeholders a shared language for discussing innovation.

The role of a common language in innovation management

The standard provides a common reference for organizations implementing an innovation management system or assessing innovation management activities. It also supports users, customers, investors, public authorities and other interested parties who need confidence in an organization’s innovation capabilities. In practice, it helps training, consultancy, assessment and standards-development activities use terms consistently and with the same meaning.

Types of organizations and innovation covered

• Organizations of any size, sector or maturity level
• Product, service, process, model and method innovations
• Innovations ranging from incremental improvement to radical change
• Internal and open innovation approaches
• User-, market-, technology- and design-driven innovation activities

A key feature of this standard is that it defines the terms used across innovation management and related standards developed by ISO/TC 279, helping to clarify how the concepts relate to one another. In that sense, it reduces ambiguity around innovation management, system implementation and assessment. It is primarily a shared vocabulary standard, rather than a prescriptive guide that guarantees innovation success.