Roles, responsibilities & authorities
In ISO 9001:2026
Checked — six assigned responsibilities instead of five: reporting on QMS performance and reporting on opportunities for improvement are now separate lines. No new duty.
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, 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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