What is an ISO standard?

ISO stands for the International Organization for Standardization – ISO is a non-governmental organisation made up of members from 165 countries, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. They are the creators of ISO standards, and their main aim is to provide guidelines and specifications for organisations to adhere to, thus ensuring businesses’ products, processes, and procedures are fit for purpose.

Is ISO certification suitable for my organisation?

Firstly, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Would you like to resolve reoccurring issues in the first instance and save time and money?
2. Would you like to tender for contracts within your industry?
3. Would you like to see an improvement in client relationships and customer satisfaction?
4. Would you like to utilise your time better through improved resource management?
5. Would you like to see an improvement in internal procedures?

If you answered yes to any of the aforementioned questions, ISO certification may be suitable for you. ISO 9001 quality management system is one of the world’s most widely used management tools, with over 1 million businesses certified.

How are ISO standards developed?

In order to remain popular, ISO standards need to be relevant to the industries that they cover. ISO standards are reviewed every five years and performed by National Standards Bodies to ensure that each country tailors the standard to its needs. With more than three-quarters of ISO members coming from developing countries, this ensures that standards apply equally to developed and developing countries alike.

Standards are developed by Technical Committees (TCs) made up of independent technical experts nominated by ISO’s members. These TCs are then divided into Sub Committees (SCs). Whereas TCs manage rather broad subjects, such as ‘language and terminology’, SCs manage far more specific subjects within these broader domains.

What is the process?

Despite having already developed over 22,000 standards, ISO is still creating more. The development process of a new standard is as follows:

1. The first step in creating a new standard is identifying a specific market need and justifying the need for a new international standard in that subject area.
2. Once that has been done, the parent committee usually sets up a working group (WG) of experts and a convenor (convenors have a deep understanding of the subject field and market needs).
3. The working draft is then shared with the members of the parent committee. If the committee uses the draft as it is, the newly named Committee Draft (CD) is circulated to the members, who comment and vote on it. Otherwise, successive modified CDs may be circulated until a consensus is reached.
4. Once consensus has been reached, the Committee Secretary submits the Draft International Standard (DIS) to the ISO Central Secretariate. It is then circulated to all ISO members, who have 12 weeks to vote and comment on it.
5. If the DIS has been approved without any technical changes, the project goes straight to publication. If changes have been made, the DIS becomes an FDIS (Final Draft International Standard), which the Committee Secretary then submits to ISO/Central Secretariat (ISO/CS). The FDIS is then circulated to all ISO members, who have eight weeks to vote on it.
6. At this stage, the secretary submits the final document for publication through the Submission Interface. If the standard has passed through the approval stage (step 5), the secretary may submit the project leader’s responses to member body comments on the FDIS.
7. The only changes made to the final text at this point are editorial corrections. The ISO Central Secretariat then publishes it as an international standard. Committee secretaries and project leaders get a two-week sign-off period before the standard is published.

From start to finish, developing a standard from scratch usually takes around three years.

How can IMSM help?

The role of IMSM is to provide support and guidance towards certification. Our experienced assessors work with existing systems and processes in your organisation and offer training where necessary.