ISO 10010:2022 Reading Guide (Not the Standard Text)

What the standard covers

The full title is Quality management — Guidance to understand, evaluate and improve organizational quality culture. The first edition came out in August 2022. It is guidance, written with "should", not a standard you can be certified against. Any organization can use it, whatever its size, industry or location. Its focus is people engagement and leadership.

The standard follows six steps, in this order:

1. Start with context (Clause 4). Quality culture is part of the wider organizational culture. Work out what inside and outside the company shapes it, and what customers and other interested parties expect.
2. Decide what culture you want (Clause 5). State the desired quality culture clearly. Top management is responsible at this step.
3. See where you are now (Clause 6). Decide what to measure and how, then analyse and evaluate the results, including root cause analysis.
4. Decide what to do (Clause 7). Choose actions based on the results, including a quality culture strategy.
5. Build it into daily work (Clause 8). Embed the desired culture in how the organization runs day to day.
6. Keep it going (Clause 9). This covers people engagement, quality culture champions, awareness and training, communication, management of change, and continual evaluation and benchmarking.

FAQ

Is this a standard you can be certified against?

No. ISO 10010:2022 is guidance, not a set of requirements to be verified. It cannot serve as a basis for certification.

How is it different from ISO 9001?

ISO 9001 is titled Quality management systems — Requirements, and sets requirements for a quality management system. ISO 10010 is titled Guidance, and covers how to understand, evaluate and improve quality culture. The standard also says every organization has a quality culture, whether or not it measures it.

Is it for small companies too?

You can use it. The standard says it applies to any organization, whatever its size, industry, location or maturity, and whatever products or services it provides.

Where do I get the official version?

From ISO or your national standards body. The list is at iso.org.

How do I use the self-assessment examples in Annex A?

Annex A (informative) has two self-assessment examples: a survey on a 5-point scale, and a table of undesirable and desirable quality culture examples. We do not reproduce them here. Once you have the standard, you can use them as a reference for your own assessment.

Want to use it on the job?

If you want to put these six steps into practice, we also have our own practical guide. It covers methods and tools, not the standard text.