Sections 5-7 of the Standard are those which deal with the preparations an organisation must go through before they can effectively operate their SMS according to the Standard. This sets out the obligations on leadership, in particular the decisions that leadership must make to properly plan and prepare for the SMS, as well as ensuring it is effectively resourced.
These sections underpin the main operations clauses which come later. This also sets out the relationship that the organisation as a whole needs to have with ITSQM in order for the Standard to be successful. Like most of the Standard, these sections do not reveal much of how to achieve its goals – but if anything were to be missing then operation of the SMS would be fatally flawed.
