Welcome to the webpage for information and news about the ISO/TMBG/ JTCG

ISO Technical Management Board’s “Joint Technical Coordination Group on Management System Standards” (the “JTCG”), was established in 2006, as a result of the report “ISO’s Further Involvement In Management System Standards - A Strategy For The Future”. At that time, there were only five published Management System Standards (“MSS”), namely ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO/IEC 27001, ISO 22000 and ISO 28000. With a forecast growth in the popularity and range of application of MSS, however, the TMB identified the need for a structured approach that would facilitate their implementation into a single, unified management system within any organization, and established a “Joint Vision” as follows:

“All ISO management system standards will be aligned and will seek to further enhance the current levels of compatibility between any existing management system standards, through the promotion of identical:
•    Clause titles
•    Sequence of clause titles
•    Text, and
•    Definitions
that are permitted to diverge only where necessitated by specific differences in managing their individual fields of application. The use of this approach for future revisions will be targeted at increasing the value of the existing ISO management system standards to users”

The mandate of the JTCG is to support such consistent development of ISO MSS and related ISO documents while considering the impact, implications, and ramifications for relevant deliverables.
In its role as a coordination body, the JTCG maintains close communications and relations with the TMB MSS Task Force (TF 2) and makes recommendations to ISO/TMB on MSS-related matters.

What is a management system? 

Management (according the ISO 9000:2015 definition):
coordinated activities to direct and control an organization
 
Management system (according to the Annex SL definition):
set of interrelated or interacting elements of an organization to establish policies and objectives, as well as processes to achieve those objectives
 
In short, a management system is about the way in which an organization manages the interrelated parts and processes of its business in order to achieve its objectives.  These objectives can relate to a number of different topics, including product or service quality, operational efficiency, environmental performance, health and safety in the workplace and many more.  The level of complexity of the system will depend on each organization's specific context. (source ISO - Management system standards)

The JTCG is entrusted by ISO with the responsibility for Annex SL of the ISO/IEC Directives. To give them their full title, the “ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 - Consolidated ISO Supplement —Procedure for the technical work - Procedures specific to ISO” govern all of ISO’s technical work. They can be downloaded free of charge here. Specifically, Annex SL provides a Harmonized Approach that has to be followed by any ISO committee, sub-committee or project committee that develops one or more management system standards.  

Annex SL comprises four main parts:
•    Clauses SL1 – SL8 include general requirements applicable to the development of any MSS
•    “Appendix 1” provides criteria for Justification Study that are required for all new MSS proposals
•    “Appendix 2” specifies the Harmonized Structure (“HS”) with common text to be used for all MSS, together with guidance for its application (aimed primarily at standards writers) 
•    “Appendix 3” provides guidance for MSS Standards writers on the appropriate use of terminology
 

The HS as defined in Appendix 2 includes common text and guidance for the following clauses of any MSS:
1. Scope
2. Normative References
3. Terms and definitions
4. Context of the organization
5. Leadership
6. Planning
7. Support
8. Operation
9. Performance evaluation 
10. Improvement

ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 — Consolidated ISO Supplement — Procedures for the technical work — Procedures specific to ISO Annex SL>

2023-02-06