(ISO: Geneva) -- Organizations wishing to apply the quality management requirements of ISO 9001 to the acquisition, supply, development, operation, and maintenance of IT systems and related support services now have a valuable tool in ISO/IEC TR 90005, “Systems engineering—Guidelines for the application of ISO 9001 to system life cycle processes.” “Adopting the IT system life cycle processes of ISO/IEC 15288:2002 as a starting point for system development, operation, or maintenance, this new technical report identifies those equivalent requirements in ISO 9001 that have a bearing on the implementation of ISO/IEC 15288,” explains Shigenobu Katoh, convenor of the working group that developed this document. “ISO/IEC 15288, “Systems and software engineering—System life cycle processes,” offers a portfolio of generic processes for the optimal management of all stages in the life of any product or service, in any sector.” ISO/IEC TR 90005 identifies the issues that should be addressed independently of technology, life cycle models, development processes, sequence of activities or organizational structure. It discusses each activity in ISO/IEC 15288 in terms of how it relates to sections of ISO 9001. The tables enable quick comparison of the different treatment of systems in ISO/IEC 15288 and ISO 9001 and explanatory texts help the user to understand why a particular relationship is cited. The guidelines provided don’t in any way add or change the requirements of ISO 9001 and aren’t intended to be used as assessment criteria in quality management system registration or certification. ISO/IEC TR 90005 is appropriate to systems that are:

• Part of a commercial contract with another organization
• A product available for a market sector
• Used to support the processes of an organization
• Embedded in a hardware product
• Related to software services.

It recognizes that whilst some organizations may be involved in all of the above activities; others may specialize in one area only. Whatever the situation, an organization’s quality management system should cover all aspects of the business—both systems-related and nonsystems related. The guidance provided by ISO/IEC TR 90005 is intended for software-intensive systems. According to François Coallier, Chair of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC 7, “Most of the systems that our society depends upon are either software-intensive or software-critical, i.e. they cannot work without one or many functional software component(s). Automobile systems, for instance, are now in such a category.” For the development, operation and maintenance of software, guidance is given in the companion document ISO/IEC 90003, “Software engineering—Guidelines for the application of ISO 9001 to computer software.” Further, organizations with quality management systems for developing, operating or maintaining systems based on ISO/IEC TR 90005 may choose to use processes from ISO/IEC 15288 and ISO/IEC 12207, “Systems and software engineering—Software life cycle processes,” to support or complement the ISO 9001 process model. ISO/IEC TR 90005, “Systems engineering—Guidelines for the application of ISO 9001 to system life cycle processes,” was prepared by joint technical committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology, subcommittee SC 7, software and systems engineering. Note: ISO/IEC 15288 has been revised in 2008, but the change in content is not related to technical aspects but rather to harmonization with ISO/IEC 12207, “Systems and software engineering—Software life cycle processes.” For more information, visit www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease.htm?refid=Ref1150.