PROCEDURE

A. General

Berkeley Lab's Requirements and Policy Manual (RPM) is an institutional document and therefore subject to version and configuration controls as described in the Document Management Policy. Persons finding errors (however large or small) are encouraged to inform the policy's owner listed in the Contact Information section, and copy the Requirements Management Program Manager (RM PM) at [email protected]. The following sections describe the process for revising existing institutional policies, requesting addition of new policies or retiring redundant or outdated policies. Typically, institutional policies are revised as a result of a periodic review or another factor, such as changing or new source requirement(s).

RPM policies must be reviewed within 90 days of the Next Review Date. Policies that are overdue for over 90 days are subject to management escalation where the Office of Institutional Assurance and Integrity Sr. Manager will contact a policy owner's Division Director with a request to determine and approve an estimated review completion date and provide justification.

The most common type of a policy change is a revision based on the periodic review cycle that is determined by a risk-based approach. Policy Authors and/or division assurance POCs should use the risk-based policy review criteria and choose the Next Review date based on these criteria. Please see the table below for determining an appropriate review cycle.

B. Types of the RPM Changes  

1. Minor and Major Changes. A Policy Author or an authorized assurance or policy point-of-contact (POC) who wishes to make minor or major changes to a policy, should do the following:
   1. Obtain a Word version of the currently published policy from their function's assurance point-of-contact (POC), or the Requirements Management (RM) Program Manager at [email protected].
   2. Create a package that includes the following documents:
      1. 1. Policy text document in a Word format that describes the exact changes to be made (including links that have been tested) in track-changes format, 
         2. Completed Significance Rating Determination Form,
         3. Completed Approvals Form,
         4. Completed Implementation plan (for major changes only and if deemed necessary by the Significance Rating analysis).
   3. Complete a Policy Change Request Smartsheet form and attach all the above documents. Please be prepared to provide names of the Reviewing/Approving Manager and your division’s representative on the Requirements Management Committee (RMC), type of change to the RPM (refer to the table below) and relevant dates, such as Effective, Next Review Dates as well as the preferred date for the publication of the revision. Please find the table describing changes to the RPM below.
   4. Major policy changes that have an tangible impact on the Lab community may inlcude a presentation to and a comment period for the RMC.
2. Editorial Changes. Editorial changes submitted by a policy author, assurance manager or a member of the RMC can be submitted without Significance Rating Determination or Approval forms via the Policy Change Request Smartsheet Form. Change requests by all other Lab employees will require an Approvals Form signed by a policy author.
3. New Policies. Lab employees who wish to introduce new policies to the RPM, should complete the following steps:
   1. Submit the Policy Change Request Smartsheet Form with the following documents:
      1. Draft of the new policy utilizing the Policy Template.
      2. Completed Significance Rating Determination Form,
      3. Completed Approvals Form,
      4. Completed Implementation Plan
      5. Present the policy to RMC and allow for the comment period from the RMC members for 10-20 business days depending on the impact of the policy. Should the policy be revised based on the RMC feedback, an updated policy draft should be provided to the Committee. 
4. Retiring Existing Policies. A Policy Author or an authorized assurance or policy point-of-contact (POC) who wishes to retire an existing policy should complete the following steps:
   1. Submit a Policy Change Request Smartsheet Form with the following documents:
      1. A Word or PDF version of the policy
      2. Completed Approvals Form

Please contact [email protected] with any questions regarding revising policies or the RPM policy management in general. 

B. Roles and Responsibilities

C. References

Source Requirements Documents

Implementing Documents

D. Contact Information

Requirements Management Program Manager or another authorized staff member of the Office of Institutional Contractor Assurance

[email protected].

E. Revision History