This paper presents and compares different approaches currently used to access surface anomalies identified on a product. The common point between these methods is that they are based on a document presented in the form of a table, which is to help the inspector to assess the anomaly detected in a repeatable and reproducible way. We will present three types of table: criteria/level table, tree-like presentation table and an indexed table. As each of these tables presents certain limits when applied to the inspection of a product surface, we will describe the table proposed in order to help the inspector determine the intensity to attribute to the identified anomaly.