Understanding Section 7.4

Communication

This is an educational article on Section 7.4 of ISO 9001, entitled “Communications”.

The purpose of this article is to give you an understanding of what Section 7.4 requires.

This article is directed towards:

• Those responsible for compliance to section 7.4.
• Those responsible for communications within your organization.
• Others interested in understanding section 7.4.

Section 7.4 is entitled “Communications” and it requires you to determine Internal and External communication requirements that are relevant to the quality management system.

Once you determine relevant communications, you must define the following with respect to relevant communications:

• Who will communicate to
• Whom about
• What, and
• When, and
• How the communication will be made.

Depending on the nature of the communications, you might define and document your communication requirements through:

• The Quality Manual,
• Your SOPs,
• A Meeting Calendar or Register,
• Stakeholder Communications Matrix,
• And so forth.

General information and communication systems that are part of infrastructure, such as chat or email systems, are often addressed in the quality manual.

Specific operational communications are often addressed in the relevant procedure or work instruction.

Meeting communications are often addressed through a combination of calendars, agendas, and minutes, or maybe even a meeting register.

Project communications are often addressed through a Stakeholder Communications Plan or Matrix.

The important thing is to be clear about when and how important communications are taking place, as well as who is responsible to communicate with whom about what.

For more information on how to implement this section, see the implementation videos for section 7.4, and review our template library for examples.