Possibility Mapping, also known as Estuarine Mapping, is a facilitation and visualisation technique that is sensitive to complexity. It is used to assess the landscape of possibilities for change within complex adaptive systems, such as national economies, industry sectors, or quality infrastructure systems. The method was developed by Prof Dave Snowden of Cynefin Co.

Insights about an economy’s present and future demand for quality assurance services are essential for developing a national quality infrastructure (NQI). Gaining a clear understanding of the needs and demand for QI services in a country complements the supply-side analysis, resulting in more sound decisions on QI development programs and their scope.

When a product is sold in the European Union, e.g., a smartphone, a child's toy or a tractor, it must meet a set of safety and quality requirements. How these requirements are set, checked, and enforced across 27 different countries is what the New Legislative Framework (NLF) is designed to address.

This post looks at four widely used QI diagrams: the Temple, the PTB flow chart (and the World Bank's variant), the UNIDO Ellipses, and the Mesopartner Rainbow. For each, we traced its origins, spoke with creators, and compared its intended audience and the messages it aims to communicate.

The same structural blind spots that distort criminal justice data are quietly undermining product safety oversight - and the EU’s own 2024 border controls report confirms every one of them, in writing.

A review of RIS Discussion Paper #336 - Reimagining India’s Quality Ecosystem by Rajeev Kher, Anil Jauhri and Om Stutee The very title of this new discussion paper from India’s Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) deserves a moment’s reflection. To reimagine something is to do more than reform it - it is to reconceive it from the ground up. And to speak of a quality ecosystem rather than a quality infrastructure is itself a statement of intent. An ec

The World Development Report 2025 Standards for Development (World Bank Group, 2025a) marks a significant moment for the quality infrastructure community. For the first time in a major World Bank flagship publication, quality infrastructure is not a footnote but a central argument: that standards, metrology, accreditation, and conformity assessment are the "invisible infrastructure" behind trade, investment, public health, and economic growth. This is a recognition that QI p

Is calibration a conformity assessment activity — or part of metrology? Authoritative sources contradict each other, and both are right on different levels. This post untangles the paradox and argues that the real problem is practical: where calibration disappears into the conformity assessment category, its distinct role in industry, innovation, and economic development becomes invisible to policymakers — with lasting consequences for QI investment.

After decades of scepticism, the World Bank has fundamentally revised its stance on industrial policy. For those of us working in quality infrastructure and systemic competitiveness, the implications are significant and encouraging.

If a company wishes to sell a CE-marked product in the Single market, it must demonstrate compliance with the applicable European Union (EU) harmonisation legislation — and for most product categories, that means working with harmonised technical standards. As the legislator does not wish to specify all the technical details itself, it also refers to harmonised technical standards, which companies previously had to purchase. Until recently, this document cost the company mo