Is a self-review of documents allowed in ISO 9000?

[Avtaar]

We are a training organization. For teaching certain subjects we have only one subject matter expert who comes up with the course material. Is a review by the author allowed in ISO9001? I understand that the records of the review need to be kept - is this understanding correct?

Thanks.

 

[Randy]

It doesn't matter...But remember as part of the internal audit a person cannot audit their own work...Which I think is bogus but it doesn't matter what I think.

 

[Big Jim]

We are a training organization. For teaching certain subjects we have only one subject matter expert who comes up with the course material. Is a review by the author allowed in ISO9001? I understand that the records of the review need to be kept - is this understanding correct?

Thanks.

You can always (and probably should) review your own work. Reviewing your own work is not the same as auditing your own work.

I'm not sure of the context in which you mean keeping records of reviews. That comes up twice that I can think of in the ISO 9001:2000/8 standard, in 7.2.2 for reviewing quotes or customer orders prior to commitment to supply and in 7.3.4 in design reviews. It doesn't sound like you are talking about either of these.

 

[howste]

You can always (and probably should) review your own work. Reviewing your own work is not the same as auditing your own work.

I'm not sure of the context in which you mean keeping records of reviews. That comes up twice that I can think of in the ISO 9001:2000/8 standard, in 7.2.2 for reviewing quotes or customer orders prior to commitment to supply and in 7.3.4 in design reviews. It doesn't sound like you are talking about either of these.

Since they are a training organization, it would be considered product design, and I think Avtaar is talking about 7.3.4.

I agree with the others that you can review your own work.

 

[Avtaar]

Thanks ! I am also looking at 7.3.6, because the course material is the end-product and for us validation of the course material would be to review the course material. Does it mean the author while validating the course material inorder to ensure that it meets requirement needs to keep records of the result, which is a review in this case? People are complaining that they need to keep additional records just because of ISO.

 

[harry]

Usually you review against guidelines if any (usually from the regulatory authorities such as ministry of education), rival organizations or the market leader that you may eventually want to benchmark against. In the absence of which you may set your own 'standards' with reference to what others may be doing overseas. To enhance 'reputation' you may want to get a recognized expert in that particular subject to help in the review process or even at the input stage.

Validation is when you put it into practice - you may need to correct/ammend as you go along.

 

[Big Jim]

Validation is what you do to ensure that it is suitable for its intended use. Validation can take any of many forms. In some cases, validation could be a review. This would probably be a very good instance where validation would better be performed by someone other than the author to remain objective (my opinion, not a requirement of the standard).

The record keeping requirment for 7.3.6 is simply that a record of the validations be kept. It could be as simple as notes that the material was reviewed by whoever you determine is appropriate to determine it is suitable for its intended use.

Very often, validation is by some sort of test. This might be from a trial run of the material in a classroom. Again, a record of the validation would be notes on the trial run and the results.

 

[Colin]

I suggest that validation of training materials is done on an on-going basis by feedback. This should be from delegates (feedback forms) and from the tutor(s) who can indicate what works well and what doesn't and any changes which may be needed. Where multiple tutors are running the same course, I like to put a simple log in the tutor file so s/he can jot down any issues as they go along.

If the course is registered by anyone e.g. IRCA, they also provide feedback when they conduct their annual review :mg: