National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN ISO 9000:2026. It is identical to ISO 9000:2026. It supersedes BS EN ISO 9000:2015, which is withdrawn.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee QS/1/1, Quality Management: Principles, Terminology & Communication.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 May 2026.

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 14 May 2026.

This European Standard was corrected and reissued by the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre on 17 June 2026.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document (EN ISO 9000:2026) has been prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 176 "Quality management and quality assurance" in collaboration with CCMC.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by November 2026, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by November 2026.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This document supersedes EN ISO 9000:2015.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national standards body/national committee. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CEN website.

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organizations of the following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.

Endorsement notice

The text of ISO 9000:2026 has been approved by CEN as EN ISO 9000:2026 without any modification.

Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.

The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types of ISO document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).

ISO draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a) patent(s). ISO takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, ISO had not received notice of (a) patent(s) which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at www.iso.org/patents. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not constitute an endorsement.

For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.

This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 176, Quality management and quality assurance, Subcommittee SC 1, Concepts and terminology, in collaboration with the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) Technical Committee, in accordance with the Agreement on technical cooperation between ISO and CEN (Vienna Agreement).

This fifth edition cancels and replaces the fourth edition (ISO 9000:2015), which has been technically revised.

The main changes are as follows:

the title has been changed from “Quality management systems — Fundamentals and vocabulary” to “Quality management — Fundamentals and vocabulary” to better represent the enhanced content;
the document has been restructured by moving the fundamental concepts and quality management principles from Clause 2 to Clause 4 to align with the structure in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2; Clause 2 is now Normative references;
additions have been made to the fundamentals, dividing them into two congruent groups, “Fundamental quality management concepts” and “Additional concepts relevant to quality management”, to address emerging trends in quality;
terms have been added and definitions modified to reflect changes to ISO/TC 176 documents;
the diagrams in Annex A have been restructured to illustrate the relationship between terms.

Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.

Introduction

This document provides the fundamentals of quality management. It provides the foundation and the vocabulary for quality management documents and quality management standards. This document is intended to help the user understand the fundamental principles, concepts and vocabulary of quality management, in order to be able to effectively and efficiently implement a quality management system (QMS) and realize value from quality management documents and QMS standards. This document proposes a well-planned QMS, based on a framework that integrates established principles and concepts relevant to quality management, in order to help organizations realize their objectives. It aims to increase an organization’s awareness of its duties and commitment in fulfilling the needs and expectations of its customers and other interested parties, and in achieving satisfaction with its products and services.

To gain the most value for their organization’s QMS, the user should first seek to understand the quality management principles and their rationale. The quality management principles form the basis of quality management documents. This document contains seven quality management principles in 4.2. For each quality management principle, there is a “Statement” describing the principle, a “Rationale” explaining why the organization would address the principle, “Key benefits” attributed to the principle, and “Possible actions” an organization can take in applying the principle.

The user should then understand the fundamental concepts in 4.3 and additional concepts relevant to quality management in 4.4 to seek insight into how they are used to develop QMS standards. Fundamental concepts are those which are integral to the understanding of quality management in general. Additional concepts are those relevant to the effective application of quality management within an organization.

The vocabulary in Clause 3 serves as a unified language for quality management documents, ensuring the terms are clearly and accurately defined as used within the quality management documents developed by ISO/TC 176. This document contains the terms and definitions that apply to all quality management documents and QMS standards developed by ISO/TC 176, at the time of publication. This document does not contain sector-specific terms and definitions for sector-specific QMS standards. The terms and definitions are arranged in conceptual order, with an alphabetical index of the terminological entries provided at the end of this document. Annex A includes a set of concept diagrams on which the thematic grouping of the terms and definitions in Clause 3 is based.

NOTE Guidance on some additional frequently used words in the QMS standards developed by ISO/TC 176, and which have an identified dictionary meaning, is provided in Reference [19].

1 Scope

This document establishes the fundamental concepts and principles of quality management which are universally applicable to the following:

organizations seeking sustained success through the implementation of a quality management system (QMS);
customers seeking confidence in an organization’s ability to consistently provide products and services conforming to their requirements;
organizations seeking confidence in their supply chain that product and service requirements will be met;
organizations and interested parties seeking to improve communication through a common understanding of the vocabulary used in quality management;
organizations performing conformity assessments against the requirements of ISO 9001;
providers of training, assessment or advice in quality management;
developers of related standards.

This document defines terms that apply to all quality management documents and QMS standards developed by ISO/TC 176.

This document is applicable to all organizations, regardless of size, complexity or business model.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

3.1 Terms related to organization

3.2 Terms related to management

3.3 Terms related to process

3.4 Terms related to system

3.5 Terms related to requirement

3.6 Terms related to action

3.7 Terms related to result

3.8 Terms related to data, information and documents

3.9 Terms related to customer

3.10 Terms related to characteristic

3.11 Terms related to determination

3.12 Terms related to audit

4 Fundamentals of quality management

4.1 General

4.2 Quality management principles

4.3 Fundamental quality management concepts

4.4 Additional concepts relevant to quality management

4.5 Developing a QMS using fundamental concepts and principles

Bibliography