Marielle stressed the fact that a Process is regarded as the core of a Software Development triangle, where the Quality/Scope, the Cost and the Schedule are the three extremes of this triangle. The process must meet the requirements for Quality, Cost and Schedule, which are like interrelated springs that affect the overall proces.

The main topic of the talk had to do with a series of standards known as ISO 9000. ISO, the International Organization of Standardization, has an Acreditation Board in each country registered and over 15,000 standards. There are 96 memeber countries and in the North America, aprox. 6000 companies registered in USA and approx. 1000 in Canada.

As an outline, ISO tenets are: document what you are going to do, do what you said you do and ..? (another one?). The strusture of ISO 9000 Standards is as follows:

ISO 8402: Definition of concepts 
||
\/

ISO 9000-1: Selection & Use of the Standard

||
||
\/
<====>

 Quality Management       
 Quality System Elements 
 ----------------------- 
    ISO 9004-1           

Three | ISO 9001

Quality | ISO 9002

Assurance Models| ISO 9003

The most common ISO 9000 Standards to which a software organization become registered are:

Unravelling ISO 9000 for software industry, Marielle talked about SPICE, a new standard, under development, which won't be released till nest year. It is the result of experience gained from many other standards like Trllium, Bootstrap, SEI/CMM. Combining acompany's needs with ISO 9001 standard, which is most used in Europe, the company gets a Software Process, a set of guidelines for a Support Process, and an outline of a Management Responsibility. Then, the company can produce a Quality Policy, a Quality Manual, Quality Procedures, Operating Procedures, and Work Instructions & Forms, all of these with the goal of meeting the following objectives:

• Improved Leadership
• Competitive Advantage through improved productivity and improved quality
• Increased market share.

Then she talked about the things ISO 9000 not cover. From this point of view,
ISO 9000:


1. does not prescribe "how to", it states "what" not
"how";
2. does not explicitly cover:

• accounting functions beyond element 20
• administration functions beyond elements 5 & 15
• sales &b marketing functions beyond element 3

3. does not solve short-term crisis
   ISO 9000 is not a quick fix
4. is not Total quality Management(TQM)

ISO 9001 is the most comprehensive standard, it contains

1. Introduction
2. Scope
3. Normative reference
4. Definitions
5. Quality system requirements

Arguing the compatibility between ISO 9001 and SEI/CMM, Marielle concluded that they are a good fit!

From this point of view,

ISO 9001 & SEI/CMM are compatible and compelmentary, with substantial overlap

• When comparing accomplishments, ISO 9001 registered companies are typically classified as mix of SEI/CMM level 2 & level 3.

The two models are independent

Complying to either models, does not predict compliance with the other

From her experience, Marielle said that she uses SEI/CMM to help her plan her improvement strategy in regards to ISO 9001's element 4, the software process elements. In fact, she said that she uses a lot of SEI concepts as guidelines - however, most time she had to be careful when she consults small projects. As far as she knows, after ISO registration, most companies (that she knows of) continue to use SEI/CMM as a guide for software process improvement; however, they also tend to consider things like the Canadian Award of Excelence -- (CABE is Canada's highest total quality recognition/award).