The objective of this standard is to provide guidelines to Committee D22 for the evaluation of the precision and bias, or both, of ASTM standard methods and practices at the time of their development. Such an evaluation is necessary to assure that a cross section of interested laboratories could perform the test and achieve satisfactory results, using the method as written. It also provides guidance to the user as to what levels of precision and accuracy may be expected in such usage.

The write-up of the method describes the media for which the test method is believed to be appropriate. The collaborative test corroborates the write-up within the limitations of the test design. A collaborative test can only use representative media so that universal applicability cannot be implied from the results.

The fundamental assumption of the collaborative test is that the media tested, the concentrations used, and the participating laboratories are representative and provide a fair evaluation of the scope and applicability of the test method as written.

1.1 This standard provides guidance to task groups of Committee D22 on Sampling and Analysis of Atmospheres in planning and conducting collaborative testing of candidate methods.

1.2 It is intended for use with other ASTM practices for the determination of precision and bias.

1.3 It is applicable to most manual and automated methods and to most components of monitoring systems. It is recognized that the evaluation of monitoring systems may provide special problems. Practice D 3249 should be considered for general guidance in this respect.

1.4 It is directly applicable to chemical methods and in principle to most physical methods, sampling methods, and calibration procedures.

1.5 The processes described are for the general validation of methods of test. A user has the obligation and responsibility to validate any method it uses for a specific application and to demonstrate its own competence in the use of validated methods.