Annex SL


The Annex SL is a section of the ISO/IEC Directives part 1 that prescribes how ISO Management System Standard standards should be written. The aim of Annex L is to enhance the consistency and alignment of MSS by providing a unifying and agreed-upon high level structure, identical core text and common terms and core definitions. The aim being that all ISO Type A MSS are aligned and the compatibility of these standards is enhanced.
Before 2012, various standards for management systems were written in different ways. Several attempts have been made since the late 90s to harmonize the way to write these but the first group that succeeded to reach an agreement was the Joint Technical Coordination Group set up by ISO/Technical Management Board.
Various of Technical Committees within ISO are currently working on revising all MSS published before Annex L was adopted. Many standards are already following Annex L such as ISO 9001, and ISO 14001).

High level structure

According to Annex L, a Management System Standard should follow the structure:
  1. Scope
  2. Normative references
  3. Terms and definitions
  4. Context of the organisation
  5. Leadership
  6. Planning
  7. Support
  8. Operation
  9. Performance evaluation
  10. Improvement

    Types of standards

Two kinds of standards for management systems are defined by the Annex L:
Sector specific to ISO 9001
Sector specific to ISO 9001
Sector specific to ISO 9001
Sector specific to ISO/IEC 27001
Sector specific to ISO 9001