ISO 9000:2000 SOFTWARE QUALITY STANDARD

17.4 ISO 9000:2000 SOFTWARE QUALITY STANDARD

There are ongoing efforts at the international level for standardizing different aspects of computer communications and software development. Standardization has been particularly successful in the field of computer networking and wireless communications. For example, the collaborative work of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has been the key to the proliferation of the Internet. Similarly, standardization efforts from the IEEE have led to the successful development of the local area network (LAN) standard, namely the IEEE 802.3 standard, and the wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, namely IEEE 802.11a/b/g.

In spite of the positive consequence of standardization in the field of com- munications, standardization in software development is met with mixed reactions.

535 On the one hand, the main argument against standardization is that it curtails indi-

17.4 ISO 9000:2000 SOFTWARE QUALITY STANDARD

vidual drive to be innovative. On the other hand, standards reduce the activity of reinventing the same, or similar, processes for development and quality assurance. Repeatability of processes is a key benefit emanating from standardization—and repeatability reduces the cost of software development and produces a base quality level of software products.

The ISO has developed a series of standards, collectively known as the ISO 9000. The ISO was founded in 1946, and it is based in Geneva, Switzerland. It develops and promotes international standards in the field of quality assurance and quality management. The ISO 9000 standards are generally applicable to all tangible products manufactured with human endeavor, say, from spices to software—Even some brands of spice and rice used in everyday cooking are claimed to be ISO 9000 certified. The ISO 9000 standards are reviewed and updated from time to time, once every 5–8 years. The latest ISO 9000 standards released in the year 2000 are referred to as ISO 9000:2000. There are three components of the ISO 9000:2000 standard as follows:

ISO 9000 : Fundamentals and vocabulary [7] ISO 9001 : Requirements [8] ISO 9004 : Guidelines for performance improvements [9]

At this point we remind the reader that ISO 9002 and ISO 9003 were parts of ISO 9000:1994, but these are no longer parts of ISO 9000:2000. ISO 9002 dealt with the quality system model for quality assurance in production and installation, whereas ISO 9003 dealt with the quality system model for quality assurance in final inspection and testing.

17.4.1 ISO 9000:2000 Fundamentals The ISO 9000:2000 standard is based on the following eight principles: • Principle 1. Customer Focus: Success of an organization is highly depen-

dent on satisfying the customers. An organization must understand its customers and their needs on a continued basis. Understanding the cus- tomers helps in understanding and meeting their requirements. It is not enough to just meet customer requirements. Rather, organizations must make an effort to exceed customer expectations. By understanding the cus- tomers, one can have a better understanding of their real needs and their unstated expectations. People in different departments of an organization, such as marketing, software development, testing, and customer support, must capture the same view of the customers and their requirements. An example of customer focus is to understand how they are going to use

a system. By accurately understating how customers are going to use a system, one can produce a better user profile.

• Principle 2. Leadership: Leaders set the direction their organization should take, and they must effectively communicate this to all the

people involved in the process. All the people in an organization must