Chapter 4: Methods for Return on Investment Analysis

3.5 ISO 9001

ISO 9001 is a set of requirements for quality management systems which must be met by firms within the European Union. ISO 9001 has quality management system requirements for firms to exhibit the ability to provide consistent products and services. ISO 9001 specifies the quality management system requirements for firms that want the ability to enhance customer satisfaction. ISO 9001 is a set of minimum requirements for firms to improve or professionally certify their quality management systems. ISO 9001 is for discriminating and selecting among suppliers whose quality management systems satisfy its requirements. ISO 9001 is for firms to design, implement, and improve their quality management systems to enhance customer satisfaction.

ISO 9001 consists of five broad categories of requirements for the design and certification of a firm's quality management system. The first three categories are quality management system, management responsibility, and resource management. Product realization and measurement, analysis, and improvement are the last two. Figure 5 illustrates ISO 9001.

Figure 5: ISO 9001 Clauses

ISO 9001 does share some similar characteristics with the common features of the Software Capability Maturity Model . Management responsibility is the equivalent of the commitment to perform and verifying implementation common features. ISO 9001 has requirements for resource management which are the equivalent of the ability to perform common feature. ISO 9001 has requirements for product realization which are the equivalent of the activities performed common feature. Finally, measurement, analysis, and improvement is the equivalent of the measurement and analysis common feature.

ISO 9001 has two distinctive characteristics or elements. The first is its product realization clause which defines requirements for a basic product and service life cycle. Product realization consists of planning of product realization, customer- related processes, and design and development. Purchasing, product and service provision, and control and monitoring of measuring devices are also included. The second distinctive characteristic is its documentation requirements. It contains requirements for a quality policy, quality manual, quality procedures, planning documents, and quality records.