1. ISO 9001
Elie Boutros
Aram Saponjyan
Andrea Ciocca

2. What are the main goals of this effort?
• ISO 9000, represents a management methodology adopted
by companies to deliver products and services that meet
customer expectations. The International Organization for
Standardization started working on these guidelines in the
late 1980s
• To facilitate international trade by providing a single
internationally-accepted set of standards for everybody's
reference

3. What motivated this initiative?
• ISO based the foundation of ISO 9001 in the content of a
British set of standards, BS5750, an older document for
military applications. BS5750 aimed at tightly controlling the
quality of munitions assembly in factories that built bombs
in United Kingdom during World War II. With the
encouragement of the British government, ISO drafted the
first version of these standards in 1987
• A significant reason for the rise in registrations in the UK
was due to increasing demands by governmental type
organizations and civil project contractors that their
suppliers were ISO9000 registered

4. Who is the organization(s) behind this effort?
• 163 countries were behind the efforts that led to the
creation of ISO. Each of these countries has elected a
representing member in the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO). With its main secretariat located in
Switzerland, ISO remains the most known developer and
publisher of international standards.

5. When was this effort initiated?
• As opposed to ISO 9000 which was introduced in 1987,
ISO 9001,ISO 9002, and ISO 9003 were all combined in
year 2000 and called ISO 9001:2000.
• ISO 9001 was updated in 2008 and is known as ISO
9001:2008. The changes are considered minor. Companies
that seek ISO 9001:2008 certification will be evaluated by
the process of examining a sample of their product(s) ,
processes and functions to see if they are compliant.

6. Who uses this approach as a way to improve quality?
• The ISO 9000 Series is a set of international standards for
quality management and quality assurance. The standards
were developed to help companies effectively document
the elements they need to maintain an efficient quality
system. They are not specific to any one industry.
• Here are some companies and organizations that use this
standard: Wal-Mart, U.S. Marine Corps, The Boeing
Company, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, United Space
Alliance, Abbott Labs, Anderson Pharmaceutical
Packaging, Borough of Poole UK

7. What are the main/unique features of this approach?
The main features of the ISO9000 family of standards are:
• The ISO9000 family of standards constitute a quality
management system and form an effective management
tool.
• It is a top-down management system that defines
responsibility and activates the organization.
• WHAT is a requirement, but HOW is a decision taken by
the organization. It respects the autonomy of the
organization and is a tool that allows the organization to
individual expression.

8. What relationship, similarities,or differences does this have
with other approaches?
• The ISO 9000/9001 is unique in the sense that it focuses
mainly on
quality management and is sometimes required by
purchasers in order sell their products focusing on many
principles that have financial benefits to a company.
• The ISO 9000/9001 standard separates itself from other
standards such as the ISO 12207 and ISO 15504 such that
these standards focus on structures, modularity/flexibility
and independent activities of a software process.

9. What is your opinion of this approach?
• The ISO 9000/9001 approach is certainly an industry fail-
safe
management system for most companies to use. The
primary reason for this is because is becoming almost a
necessary to sell software
products.
• The ISO 9000/9001 has also been a proven quality
management tool over the year and as stated previously,
used be many different companies.
• Comparatively to the other standards, ISO 9000/9001 is
one of the most robust quality management tools.
Companies would greatly benefit from financially over the
long term.

10. Sources:
• http://www.iso.org/
• www.praxiom.com/iso-9001.htm
• www.isoqar.com/iso9001/qualintro.htm