Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Implementing CMMI Along With ISO 9001

Suppose a company already has an ISO 9001 certification. Then they decide to achieve an appraisal at level 3. Suppose further that their plan is to add additional process assets according to their gap analysis. But then they discover that certain ISO 9001 work instructions or templates require changes to meet the requirements of CMMI level 3. If these assets are changed, would that necessarily invalidate the ISO 9001 certification? Under what conditions would the certification be invalidated, and what needs to be done under those circumstances? Is there a way to avoid this issue?

Without having any details as to your situation, I find it hard to believe that if you are ISO 9001 certified that the CMMI is causing you to make changes to your quality system that would invalidate your ISO 9001 certification. The ISO 9001 standard and the CMMI-DEV model are compatible. Are you working with an SEI-certified Lead Appraiser/consultant? If not, you may be making some decisions to change processes and process assets that are not necessary.

To properly address your concerns, you should have a Lead Appraiser conduct a gap analysis of your organization to determine what you currently have in place that is compatible with the CMMI and identify those gaps that need to be addressed in order for your organization to achieve Maturity Level 3. And any updates to existing processes and process assets should be compatible with both the ISO standard and the CMMI-DEV.

4 comments:

Amrish Sharma said...

very impresive... but will you plz let me know that what is the basic difference b/w the ISO 9001 and CMMi ML3 standards which should be a part of Requirement matrix of CMMi ML3 gap analysis.

Thanks
Amrish Sharma

Henry Schneider said...

Dear Amrish,
I am not sure what you are asking exactly. ISO 9000 is a set of quality standards while the CMMI is a set of guidelines for process improvement. They are different, but compatible. I suggest that you read both ISO 9000 and the CMMI Process Areas REQM and RD. If you still don't have answer to your question after reading this material, please ask a specific question.
In addition, please define what you mean by a gap analysis. From a Lead Appraiser's perspective I don't understand what you are asking for regarding what you need for a gap analysis.

Anonymous said...

I really appreciate your post and you explain each and every point very well.Thanks for sharing this information.And I’ll love to read your next post too.
Regards
iso 9001

Henry Schneider said...

Thanks for the feedback.