The ISO 9001 standard is generalized and abstract. Its parts must be carefully interpreted, to make sense within a particular organization. Developing software is not like making cheese or offering counseling services; yet the ISO 9001 guidelines, because they are business management guidelines, can be applied to each of these. Diverse organizations—police departments (US), professional soccer teams (Mexico) and city councils (UK)—have successfully implemented ISO 9001:2000 systems.
For quality consultants to be effective, they need to have a good understanding both of ISO 9001 and the sector/company they are seeking to apply it to. Effective ISO 9001 implementation should lead to improved productivity, efficiency, consistency and client service. If ISO 9001 is not delivering this, then it has not been effectively implemented, and the fault may very well lie with the consultant.
The ISO 9001 2000 standard is the International Organization for Standardization's (ISO) standard for Quality Management Systems. Although originally intended for the manufacturing industry, ISO 9001 2000 has been embraced by the services industry to the point where it has the largest number of companies possessing ISO 9001 2000 certification. The ISO 9001 2000 standard ensures that businesses use consistent and known processes to monitor the quality of their work and customer satisfaction.
The ISO 9001 2000 standard is managed by the International Organization for Standardization. It is fact part of a family of standards which cover various aspects of quality management. ISO 9001 2000 certification however is not assessed by ISO but by accredited ISO 9001 2000 certification bodies. These range from government agencies to private companies offering ISO 9001 2000 training, ISO 9001 2000 manuals or ISO 9001 2000 auditing. ISO 9001 2000 certification is not just a once off event, but needs to be renewed periodically.