Clause 6.1

Clause 6.1 is about determining risks and opportunities and evaluate its importance to decide about the need to develop action plans.

For example, an organization while updating the context analysis (clause 4.1) determined some internal and external issues with positive and negative connotations:

Then, they started to make combinations between:

1. Strengths and Opportunities
2. Strengths and Threats
3. Weaknesses and Opportunities
4. Weaknesses and Threats 

They determined

1. Develop innovative products to take advantage of the premium market less influenced by after pandemic economic crisis
2. Develop innovative products to minimize competition in commoditized products
3. Difficulty in finding a product engineer may hinder the ability to take advantage of the premium market
4. Difficulty in finding a product engineer may hinder the ability to by-pass price competition

You may realize that:

1. Is an opportunity
2. Is an opportunity
3. Is a risk
4. Is a risk 

You may evaluate these risks and opportunities based on probability and importance (severity or gain)

I use the interested parties’ point of view to evaluate the importance of risks and opportunities.

For example, one interested party are the owners of the organization. What do they want, what do they need, what do they expect?

• Profit
• Brand awareness
• Market share

So, based on this interested party point of view you can determine if each risk and opportunity is important. For example, because profit is relevant for the owners, you may conclude that all those risks and opportunities are critical to maintain or improve profits during a downturn.

Hope this tip can help you with your clients.

The following material will provide you more information:

• How to identify the context of the organization in ISO 9001:2015 - https://advisera.com/9001academy/knowledgebase/how-to-identify-the-context-of-the-organization-in-iso-90012015/
• How to determine interested parties and their requirements according to ISO 9001:2015 - https://advisera.com/9001academy/blog/2015/11/10/how-to-determine-interested-parties-and-their-requirements-according-to-iso-90012015/
• Enroll for free course - ISO 9001:2015 Foundations Course - https://advisera.com/training/iso-9001-foundations-course/
• Book – Discover ISO 9001:2015 Through Practical Examples –https://advisera.com/books/discover-iso-9001-2015-through-practical-examples/