How analytical testing is presented

Analytical summaries follow a broadly common structure: identification, method, result, and reviewer sign-off.

Identification ties the document to a lot. Method describes how the measurement was produced. Result reports the measured value against the specification the laboratory was asked to test against.

Where a specification is absent, the result stands alone and should be read as an observation rather than a pass or fail.

Sign-off records who reviewed the data. It is the part most often skipped and the part that makes a record auditable.