Product Description

“Most standards require a management plan. While this concept is fine as an intention, it often fails in the execution.

One of the mistakes a company will make is to write an extensive plan that only applies to the certification process and is not an operational plan. Another common mistake is delivering a planning document that repeats contents (such as operations procedures) in other documents. This can mean that the management plan quickly goes out of date — a documentation control nightmare.

Management planning documents must be kept simple. Use the plan as an outline. You can then point to the relevant operational documents that cover the requirements of the plan. A reference or hotlink (for online documents) will be sufficient. In this way, if a procedure or policy is changed the management plan will not be out of date; it will still reference the current procedures. The same is true of external documents like legislation or codes of practice. Use a hotlink to the current version of the document, therefore, rather than simply restating what the legislation says at the time of writing.”