This form allows you to consider the internal and external (PESTLE) factors which may be relevant to your business operations. 

Effective Form Templates

This form template is supplied in fully editable MS Word format and can be easily customised and edited. The document uses pre-defined style formatting throughout, with all text in Calibri font for improved readability.
The following document labelling is included in the footer:

• Form number and title
• Information-classification
• Version
• Page number / total pages

alphaZ documents - beautifully designed, tried and tested form templates. No junk, jargon or unnecessary fields. Simple and usable form templates developed over 25 years through practical use in the real world.

Further Reading

Further guidance on organisational context:

• Understanding the Organisation and Its Context (Clause 4.1)
• Understanding Interested Parties (Clause 4.2)
• What is a Management System?

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How to Download

This file is included in the alphaZ subscription. This form is also included in the ISO 9001 Toolkit and every alphaZ ISO toolkit that covers quality management, so the toolkit route gives you this file plus everything else you need in one download.

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If you'd like hands-on help reviewing your organisational context, or your wider quality management system, our remote support services provide direct expert input from our team, by the day, by project, or on an ongoing basis.

Internal and External Factors Review Template

A combined context review that brings together the internal issues, a PESTLE of the external issues, a SWOT analysis and a review of interested parties in one document - for the area or standard being reviewed, with space to record the analysis and potential impact throughout.

ISO 9001 clauses 4.1 and 4.2 ask organisations to determine the internal and external issues and the needs of interested parties relevant to their purpose. This review covers all of that in a single form, so the context requirement is met in one pass.

Built for ISO 9001 Context (Clauses 4.1 and 4.2)

The review works through the full context picture:

• Internal issues and factors - values and culture, knowledge and training, performance, people, roles and responsibilities and risk planning
• External issues and factors - a PESTLE of political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors
• A SWOT of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
• A review of interested parties or stakeholders and what each requires

What's Included in this Internal and External Factors Review

The form is set out as a single combined review:

• Review header - reviewed by, date reviewed and the area or standard being reviewed
• Internal issues - values and culture, knowledge and training, performance, people, roles and risk planning, with analysis and impact
• External issues (PESTLE) - political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors
• SWOT and interested parties (V2) - a SWOT grid and a review of interested parties and their requirements

Who Needs a Internal and External Factors Review?

Any organisation that wants its whole context review in one document rather than several. It is a required input to a management system to ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 or ISO 27001, and suits businesses that prefer a single combined form.

Pairs with the SWOT Analysis

If you would rather run the tools separately, the standalone F-Q58 SWOT Analysis and PESTLE forms cover the same ground in individual sheets.