Myths-vs-Facts

Lately we have received a lot of questions about ISO 9001:2015 transition training. We have lost count of how many times a day our team get the question: “When will you be offering transition training?” You certainly get the feeling there is an urgency and a rush among auditors and business owners to get some real honest advice in this jungle of information.

We have experienced that there are many voices out there giving different advice, and that there are a lot of myths, rumours and lies about the transition to the new standard. We want to give you factual advice based on information from IRCA and ISO. Hopefully it will make it clearer and help you to understandard what you need to do and when.

First off, where are we in the timeline of changes?

In February the Technical Committee (TC) that revises ISO 9001 moved to the Final Draft International Standard stage (FDIS). At this stage they go through all of the comments and feedback gathered during the Draft International Standard (DIS) stage voting process (see here for info on ISO 9001 DIS).

ISO 9001 2015 Timeline

Timeline of ISO 9001 revision taken from http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards/management-standards/iso_9000/iso9001_revision.htm

They then produce the final draft which is put forward to all ISO member countries to vote on (FDIS ballot). If the ISO members are happy with the final draft, it will then be published as FDIS and will be made available to everyone around July/August. Before this date anyone claiming they know the specific content is not telling the truth, it is only speculation. As soon as FDIS is published it will be the first time that anyone outside of ISO gets to see the final draft. NB! The word draft is still in the title…

The final stage is to publish the revised standard. This will happen at the earliest in September 2015 according to ISO. There is a chance it will be pushed back a bit, depending on circumstances around the voting process.

Sources: www.iso.org , ISO timeline , TC members page , ISO’s own transition planning guidance document

Fact or fiction?

  1. We have to do transition training ASAP!

Fiction! You will be given a three year transition period in which to move to the revised standard. When your organisation transitions is up to you. The most logical time will be when your next re-certification audit is due.

  1. I can get certified ISO 9001:2015 transition training now!

Again…fiction. You could be trained now, but this would only be based on the DIS version of the standard. FDIS has not been published yet and historically there are a lot of changes between DIS and FDIS.

Batalas recommends that you wait with the technical training until we can give IRCA approved training courses that has the credibility and substance that you need. The IRCA have announced that there are no IRCA approved courses available until FDIS is published. So the earliest you can get certified training is July/August 2015. (Source:  IRCA website)

What certified training will we offer?

IRCA have announced that transition training course will be based on a modular approach as follows:

  • Module 1: will cover the changes as a result of the adoption of Annex SL (1 day duration)
  • Module 2: covers the specific content changes of ISO 9001 (1 day duration)

We will deliver certified transition training when FDIS is published. We will not try to persuade any organisation they need training before it is necessary. (Source:  IRCA website)

So for you in your organisation, it all depends on when your re-certification is due. If it is due in August 2015 you will be re-certified to the 2008 version of the standard, then transition in 2018 for the next re-certification. No big rush! But if it is due in 2016 you can choose either of the 2 standards. If you choose 2008 you will still have to do the transition before 2018, thus getting 2 re-certifications in less than 3 years. It might be worth considering the new standard.

If you want more advice on how and when, we are here to answer your questions.

Some resources you might find useful: