Maintaining the Set of Work Smart Standards cont'd

DOE-HDBK-1148-2002

Many of the above noted potential change conditions mirror the N&S Process initiation criteria

that are stated in the N&S Manual and discussed in Section 7.1 of this Handbook. These

criteria apply not only to an initial application of the N&S Process, but also to subsequent

conditions under which the N&S Process may be reinitiated. Change control, therefore, may

often amount to reinitiating the N&S Process, although typically on a more limited scale.

Change control for a set of WSS should preserve or renew the integrity of the original N&S

Process determination of adequacy and feasibility. By design, the N&S Process uses the

collective expertise of carefully selected teams to reach a thorough understanding of the work

and its associated hazards and to identify and confirm a set of standards that can be

implemented to provide reasonable assurance of adequate protection from those hazards. If

changes to the resulting WSS set are not made with fidelity to the N&S Process, then the

integrity of the entire standards set, and the assurance of protection that it represents, may be

compromised. "Replacement parts" for the WSS set must be identified and considered with the

same rigor that went into the original set. Documentation for the approved WSS set should be

sufficient to clearly identify the standards bases. When changes to the WSS set are made, the

WSS documentation should be revised to reflect the changes and the bases for those changes.

This is of significant importance for maintaining the WSS set.

At the same time, a WSS change control process should be simple enough to be readily usable

within the existing organizational structure. An overly complex process or one which takes great

effort to initiate will only invite disuse, with correspondingly negative impacts to the integrity of

the WSS set. While the change control process should include the basic elements of the N&S

Process, it need not (and in most cases, should not) duplicate the scale and scope of the

original N&S Process effort. Change control amounts to a focused application of the N&S

Process, appropriate to the scope of the proposed change.

Change control for the WSS set is an integral part of the ISMS. Establishment of an ISMS will

include a hierarchy of documents to flow down contractual requirements for the work. A change

control process is an expected component of such a document system. Since the same

document hierarchy will also contain the WSS set and lower-level requirements flowing from it,

the change control process established as part of the ISMS should be designed to handle