PLANREFERENCE OUTLINE

Commissioning & Qualification (C&Q) Plan

Risk- and science-based C&Q plan concentrating qualification effort on the aspects critical to product quality and patient safety. Maps to ASTM E2500, ISPE Baseline Guide Vol. 5, and EU GMP Annex 15.

What a template is not

A template is a document baseline to adapt inside your own quality system. SPEQ does not approve, validate, or take responsibility for what you issue from it, and using one is not evidence of compliance.

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REGULATIONS MAPPED
ASTM E2500ISPE Baseline Guide Vol. 5EU GMP Annex 15
DOCUMENT TYPE
Plan
LAST UPDATED
January 2025
PURPOSE

A plan applying a risk- and science-based verification approach, concentrating qualification effort on the aspects of a system that are critical to product quality and patient safety and leaving the rest to good engineering practice. The plan's real content is the criticality determination: which aspects are critical, on what basis, and who with the relevant subject-matter expertise approved that judgement.

What's Inside

Purpose, scope, and a system boundary drawn explicitly, including the interfaces at its edges
GxP criticality assessment with the basis for each determination recorded
Requirements and design review basis, including the design review outputs relied on
Critical aspects and their linkage to critical quality attributes and process parameters
Verification strategy — what commissioning covers, what qualification covers, and where commissioning evidence is leveraged
Roles and the subject-matter-expert approval model, naming who approves what and on what competence
Acceptance, release and handover criteria, with documentation and traceability arrangements

How to Use It

1Draw the system boundary before anything else, and include the interfaces — most verification gaps sit at boundaries
2Determine criticality against product quality and patient safety, and record the reasoning rather than the conclusion alone
3Link each critical aspect to the quality attribute or process parameter it protects, so the verification has a stated purpose
4Plan verification effort proportionate to criticality, and state where commissioning evidence is being leveraged into qualification
5Name the subject-matter experts approving each determination, with the competence basis for their approval
6Define acceptance and handover criteria in the plan, so release to operations is a decision against criteria rather than a date
DOCUMENT CONTENTS

The full section structure of this template — every section and sub-section, so you can use it as a baseline for your own site document.

Document Control
Document InformationApproval SignaturesRevision HistoryDistribution List
1Purpose, Scope, and System Boundary
2GxP Criticality Assessment
3Requirements and Design Review Basis
4Critical Aspects and CQA Linkage
5Verification Strategy and Effort
6Roles and SME Approval Model
7Acceptance and Release / Handover
8Documentation and Traceability
REGULATORY CONTEXT

ASTM E2500-25 describes a risk- and science-based approach to specification, design, and verification of manufacturing systems, with subject-matter experts approving the critical-aspect determinations. The ISPE Baseline Guide Vol. 5 (2nd ed.) on Commissioning and Qualification applies that approach in practice, and EU GMP Annex 15 sets the qualification expectations the approach must satisfy. What is critical at your facility is your determination, made by your subject-matter experts and recorded here — no standard makes it for you.

MAPPED STANDARDS
ASTM E2500ISPE Baseline Guide Vol. 5EU GMP Annex 15
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