They set out the standard clause numbers under which the specific requirements of all management standards should be detailed.

These are (XXX is the appropriate Management System, such as “quality management”):

• Introduction
• 1. Scope
• 2. Normative references
• 3. Terms and definitions
• 4. Context of the organisation (with sub clauses covering 4.1 Understanding the organisation and its context, 4.2 Understaning the needs and expectations of interested parties, 4.3 Determining the scope of the management system, and 4.4 XXX management system)
• 5. Leadership (with sub clauses covering 5.1 General, 5.2 Management commitment, 5.3 Policy, 5.4 Organisational roles, responsibilities and authorities)
• 6. Planning (with sub clauses covering 6.1 Actions to address risks and opportunities, 6.2 XXX objectives and plans to achieve them)
• 7. Support (with sub clauses covering 7.1 Resources, 7.2 Competence, 7.3 Awareness, 7.4 Communication, 7.5 Documented information)
• 8. Operation
• 9. Performance evaluation (with sub clauses covering 9.1 Monitoring, measurement, analysis and evalaution, 9.2 Internal audit, 9.3 Management review)
• 10. Improvement (with sub clauses covering 10.1 Nonconformity and corrective action, 10.2 Continual improvement)

At first glance, preventive action seems to have disappeared. In fact it is still there but in Annex E where the use of common terms is management system standards is discussed.  It points out that the term “preventive action” deal with under dealing with nonconformities in some management system standards (ISO 9001:2008 is a good example) but in other standards (ISO 27001:2005 is an example) it is dealt with under risk management.

My own experience is that the close proximity of the terms ”corrective action”, “preventive action”, “occurrence” and especially “prevent recurrence” in the clause dealing with “corrective action” in ISO 9001:2008 has most people confused about the difference between “preventive” and “corrective” action. See here.

In ISO 9001:2008, preventive action is risk management – a preventive action is one take before something occurs – corrective action is taken after the event.

Following the standard clauses set out above, the guide has five annexes.

• Annex A gives further guidance on the standard clauses.
• Annex B provides general guidance on the use of common terms and definitions, concentrating on how they should be arranged.
• Annex C will provide a concept diagram of the common terms and definitions (and is blank in this draft of the guide).
• Annex D gives guidance on drafting and representing terms and definitions.
• Annex E defines the common terms used in management system standards.

It will be interesting to see how this guide is applied as the management system standards are revised. It should make the integration of management systems easier and the auditing and assessment of organisations where more than one management system standard is being operated easier, and less time consuming, to be carried out. 

One of the key safeguards is good security practice in the selection and use of passwords.

Information processing systems should encourage the use of good quality passwords by:

1. Asking employees to sign an agreement to keep their passwords confidential and including this within their conditions of employment
2. Providing users with an initial secure temporary password that they are forced to change on first use
3. Verifying the user’s identity before providing, in a secure manner, a new password
4. Enforcing a use of “good quality passwords” – see below
5. Enforcing password changes (after a set period of time, for example)
6. Preventing re-use of previously used passwords

Good quality passwords are:

1. Easy to remember
2. Not easily guessable (not based on your name, telephone number, date of birth)
3. Not in the dictionary
4. Do not have consecutive identical, all-numeric, or all-alphabetic characters (not “abc123″ or “123456″ or “abcdef”)

This advice for choosing a memorable password would be a good start.

The current version of ISO 9001 still requires a “Quality Manual” as one of its documentation requirements but states that it needs (only) to include:

• The scope of the QMS
• The documented procedures established for the QMS or reference to them
• A description of the interaction between the processes of the QMS

At its simplest this could be a sentence or two covering the scope, a list of procedures, and a system diagram or flowchart of the QMS processes.

ISO 14001 does not specify a manual but also requires documentation covering:

• The scope of the EMS
• The documented procedures established for the EMS or reference to them
• A description of the interaction between the processes of the EMS

BS OHSAS 18001 again does not specify a manual but requires the same three elements to be documented:

• The scope of the OH&S management system
• The documented procedures established for the OH&S management system or reference to them
• A description of the interaction between the processes of the OH&S management system

In summary then, none of these three standards require “manuals” in the physical sense but all three require key elements of each management system to be documented. None of these documents need be large and it should be possible to cover all three requirements in each case in a few pages.

Note that certification bodies sometimes expand the requirements of the standards to suit their own purposes and make their auditing and assessment easier but there is no foundation for this in the basic standards.

ISO is aiming to “standardise” the management standards over the next few years and I expect that the requirement in ISO 9001 for a “Quality Manual” will disappear and the standard will simply ask for the three elements as do the other standards. 

The forms are:

1. Notes/In
2. Next Actions
3. Someday/Maybe
4. Waiting For
5. Agendas
6. Projects List
7. Project Plan
8. Project Next Actions
9. Contacts

Notes/In:

This is the “in tray” where everything is collected for later processing (unless it can go straight to Next Actions, etc.)

These forms are used for meeting notes, jottings, ideas, etc. One of the Filofax “TODAY” markers is used to indicate the next or current page. The form is here.

Next Actions:

Once it’s been decided that there’s a Next Action needed to progress something it goes on one of these forms. The right side of the header (next to “Next Actions”) can be used for the Context (“Calls”, “Computer”, “Errands”, etc.). The “Start” column is for the date the Next Action was added and its use is optional – it’s just a way of reminding you how long the Next Action’s been hanging around. The “Action” column is for the action and “Due Date” if there is one – note that if the action needs to be done on a specific date it should be on your Calendar and not on your Next Actions list. The form is here.

Someday/Maybe:

These are Actions or Projects that you want to capture but don’t what to do anything about right now. The form has three columns for you to use as you wish. The form is here.

Waiting For:

These are actions where you’re waiting on someone else. The form allows you so say “Who” you’re waiting for, “What” action you’re waiting on them to complete, and “When” you expect them to deliver. The form is here.

Agendas:

The Agendas form is for topics that you need to raise the next time you see a person or group or attend a meeting. The right side of the header is for the name of the person, group or meeting. Again there are three columns – “Start”, “Topic”, and “Due Date” – to be used in a similar way as with the Next Actions form. The Agendas form is here.

Projects List:

The Projects List is for the more than single action things that need to be kept track of. the area to the right of the header can be used to indicate the type of Project. I have separate Project Lists for Business, Home and Personal but I keep them all in one list using the first column indicate the Project’s status (“A” for Active, “S” for Someday/Maybe, “X” for Completed/Cancelled); the second column for the type of Project (“B” for Business, “H” for Home, “P” for Personal); the third for the Project title and the last for the Area of Focus – the first two columns are narrower and the last column wider in the version I use compared to the one shown here.

Project Plan:

There are two forms used for capturing the details of Projects. The Project Plan form allows you to record the Project Title, Purpose, Goal and any Notes. The back of the form allows you to brainstorm Next Actions and their Due Date – the actual Next Action on each Project must be transferred to your Next Actions list – this is just for your forward thinking! The form is here.

Project Next Actions:

The Project Next Actions form is just a simpler Project form without the Goal, Purpose and Notes page where it’s pretty clear what the Project is and you just need a form to record some of the Project’s potential Next Actions. The Title of the Project can be recorded on the right side of the header. The form is here.

Contacts:

The final form in this is just a simple form to collect “Name/Address” and “Contact Info”. The form is here.

These forms are the main ones that I use. There are some others that I will introduce to you later, including an “Annual Events Checklist” that I use to make sure that I don’t miss a birthday, anniversary or other key event during the year.

Although the basic principles of its construction have not changed, some of the detailed implementation has been tweaked, most recently as a result of the GTD Connect Webinar on Paper GTD Systems.

I have been working a “GTD-esque” system for over 10 years since I first came across David Allen in 2000. At that time David had published some of his ideas on the Internet. I don’t think they had been branded as “Getting Things Done” and it was a year later before his “Getting Things Done” book was published. My GTD system replaced a Time Manager system that I had acquired about 10 years earlier. Claus Moeller’s Time Manager system, for which I still have many of the books and guides, brought together the hard landscape of the “Calendar” and a list of “Key Areas” (akin to GTD’s Areas of Focus) with “Tasks” (GTD Projects) and “Activities” (GTD Next Actions). The alignment with GTD isn’t perfect and the Time Manager system had a much firmer connection between these Key Areas, Tasks and Activities and the Calendar which probably worked better in the more certain times of the 1980s and early 1990s. The Time Manager system had wide range of forms to suit different purposes and had its own ring binders that had a different ring configuration to all other binders. Operating such a system was costly unless your employer was willing to foot the bill!

Probably the key flaw in all these so-called “time management” systems was the idea that time could be managed.

So, after flirting with several of these systems, I read David Allen’s book and realised that the system that he was proposing was “technology agnostic” and I could, in fact, design my own system around his GTD principles. Since that point I have always had a paper system but I have continued to try electronic solutions.

The nearest I have ever come to going totally digital is with Microsoft Outlook with the GTD Add-In. I still use this as Outlook is the favoured email system for the majority of my clients though their systems usually preclude the use of the GTD Add-In whilst on client sites. A couple of years ago I swapped my ordinary mobile phone for a PDA (a Palm Treo running Windows Mobile) and I thought I could go completely digital. I came fairly close but there were still times when the paper system won through. A more recent move to an iPhone gave me another chance to try a full digital solution but there is still no one tool that meets all my needs. I think that eProductivity would probably be the answer but that requires Lotus Notes and that’s a bridge too far. So I’m back, where I feel comfortable, with a paper system.

This time I will try to explain the whole system in more detail and point out some of the recent changes. I must stress that the system is still, and will always, be changing as my needs change. When I wrote the original article I explained that I have been a freelance quality management consultant for the last twenty years working with a variety of clients of varying sizes.

Over the next couple of years that is going to change as I plan to give up full time work and spend more of my time doing what I want rather than what someone else wants me to do. I plan to continue to follow the philosophy behind GTD but the system must be flexible and perhaps, above all, cheap to run. Apart from the David’s books and CDs,  membership of GTD Connect, a memorable attendance at one of David’s seminars (in Minneapolis where I managed a short personal chat with David who is such a nice guy),  the GTD Add-In, and a few other bits and bobs, I  have never bought any GTD “forms”. I have made my own (in Microsoft Word) and these have evolved with the system. As I mentioned above, the recent GTD Webinar on Paper GTD Systems caused me to change the style of some of these forms and to simplify the structure of the system itself.

The paper system I use is still housed in an A5 Filofax. It is now set-up with the following dividers:

• Plastic protector covering a Mindmap showing the layout of the Filofax
• Plastic pocket to collect odd scraps of paper, bills etc.
• Notes/In with blank ruled sheets containing notes taken (and some blank sheets)
• Calendar section with Annual Events Checklist (birthdays, anniversaries, etc) and printed calendar pages from Outlook (two pages facing each other covering one week). The Weekly and Monthly Checklists are no longer used
• Action Lists, currently including Anywhere, Calls, Computer, Errands, Home, Online, Read, Waiting For, Someday/Maybe
• Agendas (now has its own section as a result of the GTD Webinar on Paper GTD Systems)
• Projects & Goals containing the Projects List and Areas of Focus List. All the different types of project (Business, Home, Personal, Someday/Maybe) are now in one list rather than being in separate lists.
• Project Plans & Notes where all the Action Support material for projects is held.
• Reference containing useful lists and other material
• Contacts
• Spare Forms

My Filofax structure is replicated on my computer system with a file structure that matches the structure within the Filofax with a few subtle differences:

• 0 Front
• 1 Notes/In
• 2 Calendar
• 3 Action Lists
• 4 Agendas
• 5 Projects and Areas of Focus
• 6 Project Plans & Notes
• 7 Reference
• 8 Contacts
• 9 Spare forms

These folders are mapped and synchronised across two computers (desktop and laptop) and on a cloud using Dropbox and also, at the moment, Sugarsync whilst I decide which one to go with in the future.

In the next article, I will introduce you to some of the GTD forms I have designed and how I use them.

However, there are 6 common elements in these management system standards that can be managed as a integrated management system across all these standards (including ISO 22000 and OHSAS 18001 as well) to the benefit of the whole organisation.

These common elements are:

1. Policy
2. Planning
3. Implementation and operation
4. Performance assessment
5. Improvement, and
6. Management review

Although each standard has its own specific requirements that need to be addressed, these six elements are present in all the above management system standards. ISO is working, through its ISO Guide 72, to ensure not only that these elements exist in all management system standards, but that they have the same clause numbers in each standard.

PAS 99:2006 Specification of common management system requirements as a framework for integration has been produced to help organisations benefit from consolidating the common requirements. If your organisation has adopted, or is adopting, more than one of these standards, the use of this integrated approach can reduce duplication and complexity and make internal and external audits more effective and efficient.

1. GTD Times – helpful advice, tricks, tips and strategies for implementing GTD
2. Podcasts – including the best practices with David Allen and his team
3. Coaches Corner – articles from the GTD Coaches
4. GTD Connect - a two week trial of the online learning centre packed with GTD goodies
5. Articles, Handouts and Learning Tools – essays from David Allen on GTD best practices
6. Tips and Tools – useful tips and tricks
7. GTD-IQ – how do you measure up against GTD?
8. GTD Facebook Fan Page – chat with other GTDers
9. GTD LinkedIn Network – network with business-focussed GTD people
10. Twitter – follow David and the coaches and GTD Twitter-based classes @GTDSpecialEvent
11. GTD You Tube Channel - fun and useful videos of David and the GTD practitioners
12. Productive Living Newsletter – David’s newsletter
13. David at Google – overview of the keys to control and perspective
14. Discussion Forums – ask questions and search for answers about GTD

“Winning at the game of work and the business of life” doesn’t need to cost the earth!

The committee responsible for ISO 9001 is in the early stages of working out what changes need to be made in the next version of the standard. The first version of ISO 9001 (1987 version) took 7 years to develop. The 1994 edition took another seven years and the major revision ISO 9001:2000 took 6 years. The 2008 version, which had only minor changes, took another 8 years (though that was more to allow the 2000 version to settle rather than the scale of changes in ISO 9001:2008).

The next version could therefore be as early as 2013 but 2015 seems more likely.

One of the difficulties to be faced in the next version is the increase in the number of “management system standards”. ISO 9001 was the first but was followed by others such as ISO 14001 for environment management systems. ISO has stated that all management system standards need to be aligned to the extent that they have as far as possible identical clause titles, sequence of clauses, definitions and as much identical text as feasible.

This drive for commonality amongst the management system standards may detract from the need to include new ideas in ISO 9001. One of the criteria for developing ISO 9001:2000 was that no “new” requirements were added – it was more of a structural change. So many of the concepts in ISO 9001:2000 and the 2008 edition are unchanged from the 1994 version and if the next version doesn’t appear until 2015, and no new concepts are introduced it will contain concepts that are over 20 years old!

In the post about David Hoyle’s ISO 9000 Quality Systems Handbook, I mentioned that the book is openly critical of ISO 9001’s inconsistencies. So, despite the fact that ISO 9001 has become a worldwide baseline for quality management, there are lots of improvements that could be made.

For example, the purpose of ISO 9001 is still largely misunderstood. It is not a “model quality management system”. To many organisations and consultants that advise them seem to think that paraphrasing the ISO 9001 standard is the correct way to document a quality management system. ISO 9001 is a list of the requirements that a quality management system shall meet to enable it to be assessed. It is not a documented quality management system (that’s just one of the requirements to be met).

Another improvement would be to deal with the challenge that ISO 9001 stifles innovation by placing a greater emphasis on compliance that on improvement.

How can you influence what goes in the next version of ISO 9001? Get in touch with your national standards body – the British Standards Institution in the UK – or email the UK representative on the ISO committee Charles.Corrie@BSI-global.com ]]> http://www.parkerquality.com/quality-standards/iso-9001/iso-90012015/feed/ 0 http://www.parkerquality.com/gtd/file-folders/gtd-tips-tricks-and-tools-a-z-filing-system/ http://www.parkerquality.com/gtd/file-folders/gtd-tips-tricks-and-tools-a-z-filing-system/#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000 The Quality Manager http://www.parkerquality.com/uncategorized/gtd-tips-tricks-and-tools-a-z-filing-system/ “The lack of a good filing system can be one of the greatest obstacles to implementing a personal management system” – David Allen in Getting Things Done.

You need a good filing system or your in tray will get clogged up with stuff you should have filed.

Your filing system needs to:

• take less than a minute to file anything
• easy to use
• fun to use
• current
• complete

You will need one or more filing cabinets. If you can get them go for the ones with a moving plate to hold the file folders upright rather than hanging files. If it’s one with hanging files – label the folders you put in instead of the hanging folders and only only put one file per hanger. But don’t let them get more than three quarters full.

Keep a stack of new file folders handy and invest in a labeller. I use a Brother P-Touch 65 – it’s battery and mains operated and can make fancy labels as well as plain ones but I think it may have been superceded by the P-Touch 80. David Allen has this handsome beast on his desk that connects to his laptop via a USB socket.

Typeset labels “change the nature of your files and your relationship with them” says David . They’re just easier to pick out and look more professional if you take them into a meeting.

When it comes to labelling your files, Keep It Simple Stupid! Think about how best to label folders so that you can quickly find what you’re looking for. If you have lots of files it may make sense to devote a whole filing drawer to finance. If you wanted to file all your credit card statements, for example, then if you have a separate finance drawer just labelling your folders – MBNA, John Lewis, etc. would be fine but if you’re mixing all your reference files together then labelling these ones “Credit Card MBNA” and “Credit Card John Lewis” would be better. If more than one person needs to access your filing system consult them about how best to label the folders.

And don’t forget to purge your files occasionally – at least once a year!

It has been updated to cover the changes in ISO 9001:2008 that I have already covered in this blog.

In my view, this is all you need to understand and apply ISO 9000 to your business whether it’s in pursuit of ISO 9001:2008 certification or just business improvement in general. Of course, if you’re a quality consultant and auditor like me you’ll find this weighty tome invaluable.

David’s style, and approach in general to the ISO 9000 series, has always been constructive but direct. If he thinks the standard is unclear or ambiguous, as it is in many places, he says so, why he thinks so, and how best to deal with these failings. In this edition he has even considered the views of John Seddon, a long time critic of ISO 9001 (see his book The Case Against ISO 9000).

The ISO 9000 Quality Systems Handbook now has a new structure.

Part 1 Before You Start puts the ISO 9000 family of standards into context, defines quality and why it is important to organisations. It introduces the management principles on which the standards are based. There is a whole chapter on stakeholders, the importance of whom will become much more apparent when the new version of ISO 9004 is available. This part ends with a practical guide to the use of the ISO 9000 family of standards.

Part 2 Approaches to Achieving, Sustaining and Improving Quality covers six different approaches to getting to the level of quality that will lead to sustained success, the benefits and drawbacks of each approach.

Part 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 deal with Complying with ISO 9001 Sections Requirements. These are the sections most people will turn to who are trying to achieve ISO 9001 certification. It’s a little bit odd that David couldn’t have put another Part in front of these so that they were numbered the same as the ISO 9001 sections! Each requirement is explained in terms of What Does This Mean? Why Is This Necessary?, How Is This Demonstrated?, so that you not only get to know what the standard says but why it says it and what you need to do to comply with it.

Part 8 System Assessment Certification and Continuing Development provides tools to help you prepare for assessment, how assessments are conducted and how to progress beyond ISO 9001 certification.

It remains to be seen what the effect of the new version of ISO 9004 will be (called ISO 9004:2009 though it’s struggling not to become ISO 9004:2010!). In the meantime, beyond obtaining a copies of ISO 9000:2005 and ISO 9001:2008, this is the only other publication you might need.