ISO 9001:2026 Is Coming: How to Prepare Your Quality Management System for the Transition

ISO 9001 is entering a new chapter. The revised edition of the world’s best-known quality management standard is expected to be published in September 2026, replacing ISO 9001:2015. The revision has reached the Final Draft International Standard stage, which is the final approval phase before publication. Organisations certified to ISO 9001:2015 will receive a transition period in which to update their quality management systems.

Although the final standard has not yet been published, organisations should not wait until their next external audit before thinking about the transition.
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The months ahead provide an opportunity to review the health of your existing quality management system, correct longstanding weaknesses and prepare your team for the transition in a controlled way.

What Does the ISO 9001 Revision Mean for Certified Organisations?

​ISO periodically reviews its standards to ensure that they remain relevant to changing business conditions and stakeholder expectations.

ISO is the International Organization for Standardization. It is an independent, non-governmental organisation that brings together experts from national standards bodies to develop internationally agreed standards.
These standards cover areas such as quality management, environmental management, occupational health and safety, information security and AI governance. ISO develops the standards, but it does not certify companies itself; certification is performed by independent certification bodies.
Official website: www.iso.org

ISO 9001:2015 has now been in use for more than a decade. Since its publication, organisations have experienced major changes in areas such as technology, supply chains, remote work, customer expectations, organisational knowledge and the availability of data.
The revised standard is intended to ensure that ISO 9001 remains aligned with the needs of modern organisations. ISO has described the publication as an opportunity for certified organisations to review and refine their quality management systems so that they continue to meet organisational, customer and stakeholder needs.
Once the final edition is published, organisations will need to understand the changes, assess their current systems and implement the necessary updates within the transition period.

Do You Need to Act Immediately?

There is no need to rewrite your quality management system before the final standard is available. Draft editions can still change during the standards-development process. Organisations should therefore avoid making significant changes based only on preliminary interpretations.

However, there is a great deal of useful preparation that can begin now. A strong, well-maintained quality management system will be considerably easier to transition than one that is only updated immediately before an audit.
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This is a good time to ask:

• Are our policies, procedures and process documents current?
• Are responsibilities clearly allocated?
• Are risks and opportunities reviewed regularly?
• Are internal audits identifying meaningful opportunities for improvement?
• Are non-conformances and corrective actions properly closed?
• Are quality objectives measurable and actively monitored?
• Are management reviews producing clear decisions and actions?
• Can we retrieve reliable evidence quickly during an audit?
• Are employees participating in the quality management system?
• Is our QMS helping the business improve, or has it become an administrative exercise?

Addressing these questions now will reduce the pressure when the new requirements are confirmed.

A Practical ISO 9001 Transition Process

Once ISO 9001:2026 is published, organisations should approach the transition as a managed improvement project.
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1. Understand the final changes
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Obtain an authorised copy of the new standard and review reliable guidance from ISO, your certification body or an experienced ISO consultant.
Avoid relying entirely on informal summaries. Your organisation needs to understand how the final requirements apply to its own context and processes.

2. Conduct a structured gap assessment

Compare your existing quality management system with the requirements of the new edition.
The assessment should identify:

• Requirements already adequately addressed
• Existing processes that require minor changes
• New or revised requirements requiring further action
• Documents and records that may need updating
• Training and communication requirements
• Potential changes to internal audits and management reviews

The result should be a practical transition action plan rather than simply a lengthy report.

3. Assign responsibilities and deadlinesEvery transition action should have:

• A responsible person
• A target date
• A clear expected outcome
• Supporting evidence
• A review or approval process

A transition should not become the sole responsibility of the quality manager. Process owners and senior management should be involved wherever changes affect their areas.

4. Update your controlled information

Policies, procedures, process maps, forms and other controlled information may need to be revised. Changes should follow an appropriate document-control process that records:

• What changed
• Why it changed
• Who reviewed it
• Who approved it
• When the new version became effective
• Whether affected employees were informed

This ensures that outdated documents are not accidentally used after the transition.

5. Train employees and process owners

Employees need to understand how changes affect their work. Training should be proportionate to each person’s role. A process owner may need detailed training, while other employees may only require awareness of an updated procedure or responsibility. Training records should demonstrate that the organisation did more than circulate a document by email.

6. Implement and test the changes

Updated processes should be used for a sufficient period to generate evidence that they are working. Organisations should not wait until the transition audit to discover that a revised process has not been properly implemented.

7. Conduct an internal transition audit

Your internal audit programme should assess whether the updated system conforms to the new edition and whether the changes are effective in practice. Any findings should be addressed before the certification transition audit.

8. Complete a management review

Senior management should review the transition process, including:

• The status of the gap-assessment actions
• Internal audit findings
• Remaining risks
• Resource requirements
• Training progress
• Changes to objectives or processes
• Readiness for the transition audit

This provides evidence that the transition is being directed and supported by leadership.

9. Coordinate with your certification body

Your certification body will advise you how and when the transition audit will be incorporated into your certification cycle. Confirm the arrangements early so that your transition plan aligns with your surveillance or recertification schedule.

Why Manual Transition Management Becomes Difficult

Many organisations still maintain their quality management systems through a combination of spreadsheets, shared folders, email reminders and Word documents.
This creates challenges during a standards transition.
It can become difficult to determine:

• Which documents still need to be reviewed
• Whether the latest version has been approved
• Which transition actions are overdue
• Whether employees have received the required training
• Which internal audit findings remain unresolved
• Whether sufficient evidence exists for the transition audit

A transition involving dozens of documents, processes and responsible people can quickly become difficult to coordinate manually.​

How IsoRight Supports the ISO 9001 Transition

IsoRight provides a central online platform for implementing, maintaining and improving a quality management system.
Organisations can use IsoRight to:

• Manage controlled policies, procedures and process documents
• Maintain document versions and approval histories
• Record risks and opportunities
• Set and monitor quality objectives
• Assign and track transition actions
• Schedule and conduct internal audits
• Capture non-conformances
• Perform root-cause analysis
• Manage corrective actions
• Record training and competence
• Conduct management reviews
• Maintain supporting audit evidence
• Monitor progress through central reports and dashboards

These capabilities allow the transition to be managed as part of the organisation’s live quality management system rather than through a separate collection of transition spreadsheets. IsoRight already brings document control, management responsibility, risk, tasks, training, audits and corrective actions together in one environment.

Use the Transition to Improve the Business

A standards transition should not be treated as an exercise in changing clause numbers or updating document headings. It is an opportunity to ask whether your quality management system is genuinely helping your organisation:

• Improve customer satisfaction
• ​Prevent recurring problems
• Strengthen process ownership
• Make better decisions
• Reduce rejects and rework
• Manage risks more effectively
• Improve employee participation
• ​Respond faster when quality issues arise

The best outcome is not simply a successful transition audit. It is a more useful, current and effective management system.

Begin Preparing for ISO 9001:2026

The final requirements and formal transition arrangements will become clearer following publication of ISO 9001:2026.
Organisations that begin reviewing their existing systems now will be better positioned to respond. They will have fewer outdated documents, fewer unresolved corrective actions and a clearer understanding of the weaknesses in their current QMS.
IsoRight can help your organisation centralise its quality information, manage transition actions and prepare reliable evidence for internal and external audits.

Speak to the IsoRight team about preparing your quality management system for the ISO 9001:2026 transition.