Roles, responsibilities & authorities
Carried over from ISO 9001:2015
Checked — six assigned responsibilities instead of five: reporting on QMS performance and reporting on opportunities for improvement are now separate lines. No new duty.
Checked against the published text on 27 September 2026.
Plain-language summary
Everyone with a QMS role must know it — responsibilities assigned, communicated and understood, including who ensures conformity, who reports on QMS performance, and who guards system integrity during changes.
What the clause is really asking
Accountability needs names: who ensures the QMS conforms to the standard, who reports its performance to top management and — a separate line in 2026 — who reports on opportunities for improvement, who promotes customer focus, who keeps the system intact when the organisation changes. Assigned is not enough — communicated and understood is the test.
What auditors look for
Auditors triangulate: job descriptions/RACI vs org chart vs interviews. Who reports QMS performance? Who has authority over product release and nonconforming product? After that recent restructure — who inherited the QMS duties of the person who left?
Typical evidence
Job descriptions; responsibility/RACI matrix; appointment letters; org chart; management review showing performance reporting.
How to comply — recommendations
A one-page QMS RACI beats thirty job descriptions: key duties down the side, roles across the top. Update it the week any responsibility moves, and brief the people affected — communication is the requirement, paper is just the evidence.
Common nonconformities
Job descriptions describing jobs nobody does anymore; QMS reporting orphaned after a resignation; conflicting authority over product release between production and quality.
Related clauses
IATF 16949: extended by 5.3.1 & 5.3.2; ISO 14001 5.3; ISO 45001 5.3
In the book
Chapter 5 — Leadership — The Desk Where Quality Lives treats this clause family in full: what it is really asking, what auditors look for, the evidence that satisfies, how to make it work on a real floor, and where companies stumble.
Resources for this clause
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