ISO 9000 Certification in Software Engineering

The International organization for Standardization is a world wide federation of national standard bodies. The International standards organization (ISO) is a standard which serves as a for contract between independent parties. It specifies guidelines for development of quality system.

Quality system of an organization means the various activities related to its products or services. Standard of ISO addresses to both aspects i.e. operational and organizational aspects which includes responsibilities, reporting etc. An ISO 9000 standard contains set of guidelines of production process without considering product itself.

ISO 9000 Certification

Why ISO Certification required by Software Industry?
There are several reasons why software industry must get an ISO certification. Some of reasons are as follows :

• This certification has become a standards for international bidding.
• It helps in designing high-quality repeatable software products.
• It emphasis need for proper documentation.
• It facilitates development of optimal processes and totally quality measurements.

Features of ISO 9001 Requirements :

• Document control –
  All documents concerned with the development of a software product should be properly managed and controlled.
• Planning –
  Proper plans should be prepared and monitored.
• Review –
  For effectiveness and correctness all important documents across all phases should be independently checked and reviewed .
• Testing –
  The product should be tested against specification.
• Organizational Aspects –
  Various organizational aspects should be addressed e.g., management reporting of the quality team.

Advantages of ISO 9000 Certification :
Some of the advantages of the ISO 9000 certification process are following :

• Business ISO-9000 certification forces a corporation to specialize in “how they are doing business”. Each procedure and work instruction must be documented and thus becomes a springboard for continuous improvement.
• Employees morale is increased as they’re asked to require control of their processes and document their work processes
• Better products and services result from continuous improvement process.
• Increased employee participation, involvement, awareness and systematic employee training are reduced problems.

Shortcomings of ISO 9000 Certification :
Some of the shortcoming of the ISO 9000 certification process are following :

• ISO 9000 does not give any guideline for defining an appropriate process and does not give guarantee for high quality process.
• ISO 9000 certification process have no international accreditation agency exists.