It is not just standards, you will find many engineering contracts these days refer to RAGAGEP - Recommended and Generally Accepted Good Engineering Practice.

It is not just standards, you will find many engineering contracts these days refer to RAGAGEP - Recommended and Generally Accepted Good Engineering Practice. My take on this is to allow for rapidly evolving practices in an industry where key standards may not be updated to over a decade in some cases, or even cease to exist at all due to emerging fields. What this means is that a responsible engineer has to make a defendable decision, using experience and judgement to justify a particular course of action. As my engineering manager used to say to me, "Would you feel comfortable saying those words again, just adding on Your Honour'at the end?"