Directives and Policies

A directive is an internal document that puts into practice the obligations of the company, but also the philosophy and strategy set by the owners and management of the company.

• What all the Directives are
• Workflow vs. directives
• Hierarchy of directives
  • Policy vs. directives
  • Link between model tasks and directives
• Directive vs. obligation

Directives and Policies are an integral part of every quality system and corporate governance system. They are also part of the methodologies administered by AyMINE

What all the Directives are

Directives are all internal normative documents by which an organisation sets rules of conduct, activities, competences or qualifications. Their names may vary, but in the case of the most common quality standard, ISO 9001, terminology is used:

• The Quality Handbook – in fact it is an umbrella directive of the highest level
• Quality Policies
• Directives

AyMINE has a uniform designation "directives" for the above levels, but within a customer-defined designation it is possible to clearly distinguish the individual designations

Workflow vs. directives

The lowest level of quality system documentation is often workflow. AyMINE for workflow uses model tasks, on the basis of which the worker can be given an assignment directly as part of the assignment. While it is also possible to create workflow in AyMINE, it is advisable to include a maximum of operational instructions for a specific activity directly in the assignment of the model task

Hierarchy of directives

In AyMINE, it is possible – and advisable – to organize directives hierarchically, as is also recommended within quality standards.

The recommended structure in AyMINE is:

• Quality manual as a standalone directive.
• Policies as a top-level directive
• Directives specifying rules for specific areas such as subordination directives under policies
• Sample tasks as binding procedures for specific activities and tasks
• Methods as documents under directives only in cases where it is not advisable to use the model task. A typical case where procedures are advisable is
  • Guides for activities that are not carried out on the basis of a specific task
  • Guides for activities carried out under multiple different model tasks.

For more about the model tasks, see here

Policy vs. directives

Policies_ are by default more broadly drafted and contain general principles and objectives for a given area.

Guidelines_ on the other hand are more specific and define specific measures by which objectives set in policies are achieved.

Link between model tasks and directives

By default, directives and model tasks are together in hierarchically organized documentation. In AyMINE, a model task cannot be "classified" under a directive because it stands alone and separately. However, within a model task, it is possible to assign the relevant directive by a link and refer to it. For each model task, it is thus clear to which directive it refers and vice versa, for directives, within the links, model work tasks are seen to fulfil them in practice.

Directive vs. obligation

Obligation is an external regulation that tells a company how to behave, what to do or not do.

Typical examples of obligations are laws or norms.

Directive is an internal document that puts into practice the company's external obligations, but also the philosophy and strategy set by the company's owners and management.

Logically, obligations imply directives and possibly model tasks. On the contrary, the obligation is not affected by internal directives, the dependency is one-sided.