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ISO Certification

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a worldwide federation of national standardization bodies from 140 countries . Their mission is to develop standards to facilitate the international exchange of goods and services. ISO standards are documented agreements containing technical specifications or other precise criteria to be used consistently as rules, guidelines, or definitions of characteristics to ensure that materials, products, processes, and services are fit for their purpose.

Key Point

Shouldn't the acronym for International Organization for Standardization be "IOS" instead of "ISO?" Yes, if it were an acronym, which it is not.

"ISO" is derived from the Greek word isos, which means "equal."

The ISO 9000 series of standards is used to establish a quality management system. ISO 9000-3 describes how ISO 9001 standards apply to software. TickIt is a certification scheme (primarily used in the United Kingdom) tuned to deal with the special requirements associated with applying ISO 9000 to software development.

Key Point

ISO emphasizes the basic elements of quality management and assesses an organization's process using a rigorous auditing model.

Companies choose to seek ISO registration for a variety of reasons: to improve their quality processes, to baseline improvement efforts, and even to use ISO as a marketing ploy. Becoming ISO certified always warrants a mention in the business news and makes the company look better in the eyes of the stockholders and the business community.

ISO emphasizes the basic elements of quality management and assesses an organization's process using a rigorous auditing model. An ISO 9000 registration effort can be a very involved process that might take a year or more to implement. Periodic reviews by auditors ensure that the outlined processes are being maintained .

Key Point

If your company is undergoing ISO certification, it may be possible to use this effort as a springboard to improve the testing processes.

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ISO audits are at a much higher level than this book (i.e., the entire organization versus the testing organization). So why do we bother to mention them here? For this one simple reason: companies that undergo quality audits such as ISO are usually more receptive to process improvement activities throughout the organization. If your company is undergoing ISO certification, it may be possible to use this effort as a springboard to improve the testing processes. One could even argue that improving the testing process could help your organization achieve ISO certification.

ISO Checklists

The following checklists provide typical questions that auditors would ask a test manager during the ISO certification process. The bottom line is, "Do you have a procedure in place to handle each of your daily tasks and is that procedure repeatable?" If you can answer "yes" to all of the questions on the auditor 's checklist (and prove compliance), then you'll achieve ISO certification. A sample checklist is shown in Table 11-1.

Pros and Cons of ISO Certification

Key Point

Much of the success of the ISO is dependent upon the motivation for achieving the certification in the first place.

There is considerable controversy throughout the software industry over the value of ISO 9000 certification in determining the ability of an organization to consistently produce "good" software. Many people who have been directly involved in the ISO certification process (including Stefan) have seen the effects years later and often ask themselves , "If we're ISO certified, why does this company still suffer the consequences of quality and delivery problems?" A common answer is, "ISO is just a paper trail that we have to follow in order to maintain our certification and compete in the global marketplace ."

Philip Crosby ( Quality Is Still Free, Making Quality Certain in Uncertain Times ) minces no words in his assessment of the value of ISO certification:

" With a properly run quality management process, there will be no difficulty meeting ISO 9000 requirements. It's really a very old-fashioned Quality Assurance kind of thing. But it is not oriented toward the needs of today and the next century. It's only to provide a living for consultants and for quality people who do not want to think for themselves ."

On the other hand, many organizations report successfully using ISO as a valuable tool for improving processes. Much of the success of ISO is dependent upon the motivation for achieving the certification in the first place.

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Craig R. D., Jaskiel S. P.

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