Sources have reported to Oxebridge that the DIS version of ISO 9001:2026 will be released by “the end of June” for public review and commenting. Industry stakeholders and the public will have their first opportunity to view the draft standard and provide feedback through their official ISO member nation’s TC 176 mirror committee.
The DIS version is not the final version that will become the official standard, however. Typically, there can be either minor or significant changes to the DIS before the final version is published. ISO also reserves the right to publish a second DIS if the first version is deemed problematic or requires a significant rewrite.
If the DIS is deemed suitable, the next stage will be for ISO TC 176 to release a Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) version, which will closely match the eventually released standard. ISO member nations will be asked to vote on the FDIS. If approved by a majority of participating countries, the standard will be converted to an International Standard (IS), which reflects the official, final published document.
Users are urged not to make changes to their existing quality management systems based on the pending DIS version, as it may not reflect the text of the final IS version.
The development of the standard has been marred by controversy, leading many to think the final IS version will be the least-popular version of the standard since it was first released in 1987. The world has generally agreed that the 2000 version is the best iteration of ISO 9001, but it was repeatedly updated and edited over the official objections of ISO member nations in order to sell standards, seminars, certifications, and books. Under Secretary-General Sergio Mujica, ISO is now operated as if it were a for-profit publishing company, prioritizing revenue over the official rules and WTO regulations governing standards development. This has resulted in concepts such as “risk-based thinking” and “climate action” being added to ISO 9001 based on what ISO believes are subjects likely to sell standards, but which have little bearing on the actual quality management profession. The 2026 version appears ready to not only continue this practice, but expand it further, adding non-quality-related topics such as ethics, “sustainability,” and artificial intelligence to the content.
ISO has refused feedback from the public and industry experts, giving control to the British Standards Institution (BSI) to determine content, along with the ISO Technical Management Board, which is not comprised of any quality management subject matter experts. The control by BSI is problematic because, like ISO, BSI sells standards and thus has an interest in adding content to maximize its own sales. During an early Committee Draft, the TC 176 developers added an entire book to the annex of ISO 9001, which would have increased the cover price by hundreds of dollars; the annex was removed after widespread public backlash.
Sam Somerville of the consulting firm Jigsaw currently runs the committee and appears to be preparing to continue the tradition of making ISO 9001 more confusing so that she, and other consultants on the committee, can later sell seminars and books deciphering the complexities her team created. Mujica and ISO have not only refused to remove the private consultants from TC 176 but have instead relied on them to carry out controversial policies intended to prop up ISO and BSI’s annual revenue.
The leaked drafts of ISO 9001:2026 have, to date, been met with widespread controversy and condemnation. Despite this, Somerville, BSI and ISO have pushed ahead, adding off-topic concepts and focusing on updating the Annexes rather than correcting errors that currently exist in ISO 9001:2015. TC 176 has made very few changes to clause 8, suggesting that no one on the committee has any practical experience operating a quality management system.
ISO intends that the final IS version will be published in 2026 and is already preparing to push back against any calls for a slower, more thoughtful edit of the standards to address errors and stakeholder feedback.
The standard was initially intended to be published in early 2025, but ISO member nations consistently voted against revising the current version. Ignoring this, ISO continued to hold votes over multiple years while lobbying nations to change their votes until enough nations failed to vote against the revision, allowing ISO to proceed.
