Find every ISO 9001:2026 gap in your QMS in one afternoon.
A clause-by-clause checklist of what changed from the 2015 edition, with a source for every line. Free. No consultant required.
The question you are about to get asked
"Are we ready for ISO 9001:2026?" It comes from your plant manager, your registrar, or a customer's supplier-quality team. Usually the week the standard publishes, or at the next surveillance audit.
There are three common ways to answer it badly.
- Pay for a transition project before anyone has read the text.DNV describes the changes as moderate and less extensive than the 2015 upgrade. DNV
- Sit through a course built on the draft, not the standard.The FDIS was approved on July 15. Any course written before that date was written on a draft. Proks
- Wait for the surveillance audit and find out from the auditor.Opportunities get their own subclause, 6.1.3, separate from risks. An opportunity column in the risk register is a thin answer once auditors start checking. FDIS review
What changed, in plain terms
Five themes carry almost all of the new wording. The checklist breaks them into 16 clause-level items.
Risks and opportunities are handled separately
Clause 6.1 is split into determining, addressing risks, and addressing opportunities. For you: an opportunity column in the risk register no longer covers it. FDIS review
Climate context is integrated, not expanded
The 2024 amendment's wording moves into the base text. Nothing beyond it. For you: if your context analysis already answers the climate question, you are done here. Proks
The quality policy must support your strategic direction
Policy and objectives tie to the business strategy, not only to quality processes. For you: one sentence in the policy and a traceable line to your objectives. SGS
Quality culture and ethical behavior become explicit
Top management promotes them; people under your control are aware of them. For you: evidence that leadership talks about it and that people can raise problems. DNV
Fifteen pages of guidance, zero new requirements
Annex A is rewritten to explain clauses 4 to 10. It is informative. For you: read it once, and do not let it be audited as a requirement. FDIS review
Not changing: the ten-clause structure, the process approach, PDCA. Clause 8 is nearly untouched. Integrated systems stay integrated. Proks
What is in the checklist
The dates that matter
Publication date, what ISO and the certification bodies say about the transition window, the 2015 precedent, and who now sets the deadline.
What is not changing
So you do not over-plan. Structure, process approach, PDCA, and clause 8.
16 clause-level changes
Each with a plain-language description, a self-check, and three boxes: Covered, Update, or Ask your registrar.
A transition plan for your existing audit calendar
Fold the work into your next surveillance or recertification audit instead of running a special project.
Eleven sources, linked
ISO/TC 176, iso.org, SGS, NQA, DNV, TÜV NORD, and a clause-by-clause review of the FDIS text by Oxebridge.
Printable, Letter size
Five pages. Works on paper in the management review and as a PDF in your compliance folder.
How big is this, really?
Smaller than the last one. Evolution, not revolution. Here is what the certification bodies and a clause-by-clause review of the FDIS text say. There is no need to rush: fold the update into your next scheduled audit.
"The overall extent of changes seems moderate and are less extensive than the changes experienced when upgrading to the 2015-edition."
DNV US, ISO 9001:2026 Revision and Transition Guide
"A well-functioning 2015 system will need adjustment, not reconstruction."
Proks Certification, ISO 9001:2026 is weeks away
"Updating to the new standard will likely take most companies about an hour."
Christopher Paris, Oxebridge Quality Resources, ISO FDIS 9001:2026 Full Review
The work is not the update. The work is proving to your registrar that you checked. That is what the checklist is for.
Questions quality managers ask
ISO/TC 176/SC 2 announced on August 7, 2026 that the FDIS was approved and that publication is scheduled for September 16, 2026. ISO/TC 176/SC 2
The checklist is built from the approved FDIS text. ISO's process allows only editorial changes after FDIS approval. If the published text differs on any item, the checklist is updated and you get an email. FDIS review
No. Certification to ISO 9001:2015 remains valid during the transition window. You need to adopt the 2026 edition before the window closes. NQA
ISO says certified organizations will have a transition period. SGS, NQA and DNV expect three years, ending around September 2029. As of early September 2026 the formal resolution had not been published, and DNV advises planning as if the window may be shorter. The 2015 edition's window ran three years and closed on September 15, 2018. SGS IAF
No. The climate wording is limited to what Amendment 1:2024 already required. There are no new requirements for sustainability, cybersecurity, digitalization or AI. AI and digitalization are mentioned as context factors an organization may consider, not as obligations. Proks FDIS review
Raphael Schön, founder of SIÁN, a small automation agency (SIÁN OÜ, Tallinn, Estonia). One of our own companies is in the middle of its ISO 9001 recertification, and this checklist started as the list we needed ourselves. Not ISO, not a registrar, and not a consultancy selling a transition project. Every item is compiled from the public FDIS review and the certification-body guidance linked on this page, and cites where it came from. Questions or corrections: hello@sian-agency.online.
You get the checklist right away. Unless you tick the notes box on the form, we email you only if the published standard changes an item or when the transition deadline is formally set. If you tick it, you get short transition notes, about weekly for a month and then rarely, including what we build and sell for the transition. No weekly newsletter either way. One-click unsubscribe.
A pile like this is what ISO 9001 documentation looks like right now.
2015 procedures, amendment notes and audit findings stacked on each other. The checklist tells you, item by item, which of it already covers 2026 and which needs an update. One click.