How to work with requirements

Overview #

Requirements become available either by [activating a standard] or by adding custom requirements yourself. In ISO standards usually requirements make up the High Level Structure (HLS) of the standard, describing the management system regarding a certain topic. There requirements are also known as normative clauses or paragraphs.

For instructions on how to manage the list of requirements, including on how to search, filter and report, see list actions.

Properties #

For each requirement, you have the following properties:

• Code
• Owner
• Group
• PDCA status
• Monitoring
• Tags
• Requirement
• Implementation

The Requirement field is prefilled and read-only if it comes from an activated standard. For a custom requirement, it is editable. When more than one standard is activated with an overlap in requirements, you’ll get tabs showing the requirements from different standards.

The Implementation field is editable, this is where you describe how you have implemented the requirement. You may refer to a document which is linked to the requirements in the Library tab of the Related information panel and also pinned as a tab with content preview by creating a badge.

View #

The ‘View’ button allows you to change the view on your requirement.

• Tabs per standards element (default).

Shows the requirements from all related standards in tabs, with the implementation field below it.

• Among each other.

Shows the requirements from all related standards as a list, with the implementation field below it.

• Full screen.

As ‘among each other’ but with other user interface elements like the menu hidden for more screen real estate.

Related standards #

The ‘Related standards’ button allows you to modify the relationship between your requirement and ISO- and custom standards.

If you have created a custom standard, then creating new requirements and linking them to your custom standards with this button is the way to fill your custom standard with requirements.

Monitoring tab #

Each requirement has a ‘Monitoring’ tab. This tab shows you all tasks related to the requirement but also all tasks related to sub-requirements, for a certain time period.

For each of these tasks, the following information is shown:

• Name
• Start date
• Recurrence pattern
• Total score
• Score per instance

The score is calculated with a proprietary algorithm that takes into account whether all checklist items were marked as done successfully and whether the task was completed on time.

The score per instance is a graph that is shown if it is a recurring task, with the score for each time the task was completed.

Related information #

The pane which can be opened on the left contains more information related to requirement. For example, in the ‘Library’ tab you can link documents to the requirement. That may include a document that describes your requirement. If the linked document lives in SharePoint, then you can include the document content in a tab in ISOPlanner with the requirement.

Also, in the ‘Context’ tab, you can link processes, objectives, risks and controls to this requirement. Read more about related information.

Tasks #

When a requirement is opened, by default it shows a ‘Details’ tab. There is also a ‘Tasks’ tab where you can create new tasks in the context of this requirement.

Analytics #

The overview of requirements has a tab called ‘Analytics’. This will show you graphs with the number of requirements per group, and standard requirements per owner.