For years, many companies have expended countless dollars and painful hours to comply with the various requirements of ISO 9001. Now, some of these companies are being asked to meet the provisions of Carnegie Mellon’s Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMi). In its former guise as CMM, Carnegie Mellon’s program was often relegated to the software department. But the CMMi version is more comprehensive, addressing many aspects of a company’s operation. Many CEOs, upon learning of these new provisions, must have groaned, “Oh no. Not again!”
However, they may find comfort in the notion that both CMMi and ISO 9001 start with the same basic premise of how a well-run company should operate. It turns out that many of CMMi’s provisions correspond to ISO 9001 requirements. For example, Provision SP 1.1 of Requirements Management from CMMi covers the understanding of requirements. Section 7.2.1 of ISO 9001 covers the determination of requirements related to the product.The following table shows how CMMi provisions might be addressed by an existing procedure written for ISO 9001. The left column shows the CMMi provision and the corresponding text for that provision. The right column shows an analogous ISO 9001 requirement and an example of text that could be used to meet the ISO 9001 requirement. The same example text meets the provision of CMMi with little or no alteration.
CMMi Provision | ISO 9001 Requirement |
SP 1.1 Obtain an Understanding of Requirements | 7.2.1 Determination of Requirements Related to the Product |
As the project matures and requirements are derived, all activities or disciplines will receive requirements. To avoid requirements creep, criteria are established to designate appropriate channels or official sources from which to receive requirements. The receiving activities conduct analyses of the requirements with the requirements’ provider to ensure that a compatible, shared understanding is reached on the requirements’ meaning. The result of this analysis and dialog is a consistent set of requirements. | Extensive efforts are expended both during the proposal phase of a project, and during the design and design review phases, to ensure that all customer requirements are understood and met. |
This way, many of the CMMi provisions can be met with corresponding requirements of ISO 9001. One rule of thumb for CMMi is, “If you’ve already done it, don’t do it again.” Companies that are registered to ISO 9001 have done much—if not most—of the work required to comply with CMMi.
The following table shows the CMMi provisions in the left column. In the right column it shows sections of ISO 9001 that correspond—at least in part—and examples from aerospace subcontractor Areté Associates that could be used to satisfy both sets of requirements.
Project Planning | |
SP 1.1-1 Estimate the Scope of the Project Establish a top-level WBS to estimate the scope of the project. The WBS is typic ally a product-oriented structure that provides a scheme for identifying and organizing the logical units of work to be managed, which are c alled “work packages.” The WBS provides a reference and organizational mechanism for assigning effort, schedule and responsibility. It’s used as the underlying framework to plan, organize, and control the work done on the project. Typical work products include task and work product descriptions.
| 7.1 Planning of Product Realization Areté Associates plans and develops processes to ensure that all aspects of product realization are achieved. Planning sheets and test plans are developed prior to production. These plans are reviewed by the people with responsibility to carry them out and corrections and improvements are made as a result of the review. Verification and validation efforts are accomplished during production on a daily basis and during the preliminary and critical design reviews with the customer. Records of such activity are kept and made available.
At the beginning of each project, the program management team prepares a design plan, which should include descriptions of project activities, resource requirements, interfaces and responsibilities of organizations involved in the program, as required. The design plan needs to be updated as the program progresses or requirements change. Changes to the design plan are distributed to the program team as appropriate. |
Project Monitoring and Control | |
SG 1 Monitor Project Against Plan | |
SP 1.5-1 Monitor Stakeholder Involvement Once the stakeholders are identified and the extent of their involvement within the project is specified in the project planning, that involvement must be monitored to ensure appropriate interactions. Typical work products are records of stakeholder involvement and reviews.
| 8.2.1 Customer Satisfaction Customer satisfaction is monitored primarily through the results of customer audits. The customers of Areté Associates are large aero-space corporations that conduct regular audits and report their concerns. Areté Associates goes beyond these audit results with a proactive program to measure and improve customer satisfaction. Methods used include trip reports, customer visits, memos and e-mail. |
SP 1.6-1 Conduct Progress Reviews There should be periodic reviews of the project’s progress, performance and issues. Progress reviews keep stakeholders informed. These project reviews can be informal and may not be specified explicitly in the project plans. Typical work products are documented project review results. Teams should regularly communicate status on assigned activities and work products to relevant stakeholders such as managers, staff members, customers, end users and suppliers. Identification and documentation of significant issues and deviations from the plan are important. Employees must document change requests and identify problems in any of the work products and processes, as well as track change requests and problem reports to closure.
| 5.6.2 Management Review Input Inputs to the review of the quality management system should include results of external audits, results of internal audits, customer feedback, follow-up actions from previous management reviews and recommendations for improvement.
Outputs from the review of the quality management system should include any decisions to improve the quality system effectiveness, improvements to processes and resource needs.
Engineering design reviews are used to verify that the hardware design meets the established specification and performance requirements. Design reviews of products may be held at any stage of development to evaluate specific aspects of the item under development. Formal design reviews may include customer participation. Records of formal design reviews are kept by the program management team. Informal design reviews may be held at any time in the project, and records may be kept at the discretion of program management or the responsible engineer. |
Supplier Agreement Management | |
SG 1 Establish Supplier Agreements | |
SP 1.1-1 Determine Acquisition Type Determine the type of acquisition for each product or product component to be acquired. Obtaining products through a contractual agreement, obtaining products from the customer or any combination are three examples of acquisitions.
| 7.4.2 Purchasing Information Purchasing documents should contain data clearly describing the product ordered. Purchasing requisitions are generated in Areté Associate’s computerized PDM system. Included on the purchase requisition are the appropriate “Q” clauses for assuring clear specification, certifications, inspection requirements and other relevant technical data. The appropriate authority for adequacy and program requirement, prior to release, should approve all purchasing document. |
SP 1.3-1 Establish Supplier Agreements Establish and maintain formal agreements with the supplier through statements of work, contracts, memoranda of agreement or licensing agreements.
| 4.1 Quality Management System This quality manual, along with other procedures, should serve as documentation of the quality management system of Areté Associates. It’s intended to document, implement, and maintain the quality system and to provide for continuous improvement within the requirements of ISO 9001.
Monitoring and measurement of product should be c alled out on the assembly planning documents. Inspections should be performed as indicated. Test and inspection reports should be maintained as quality records. |
Measurement and Analysis | |
SG 1 Align Measurement and Analysis Activities | |
SP 1.1-1 Establish Measurement Objectives Measurement objectives document the purposes for which measurement and analysis are done, and specify the kinds of actions that may be taken based on the results of data analyses. Measurement objectives answer the question, “Why are we measuring this?” The sources for measurement objectives may be management, technical, project, product or process implementation needs. | 8.1 Measurement, Analysis and Improvement Opportunities for measurement and analysis will be sought out. Once identified, these opportunities will be planned and implemented to ensure that product meets requirements, conforms to the quality management system and contributes to continuous improvement. Where appropriate, statistical methods such as control charts and Pareto analysis will be used.
Customer satisfaction is monitored primarily through the results of customer audits.
The company continu ally improves the effectiveness of the quality management system through the use of audit results, both internal and external; analysis of data such as MRB data; and walk-through inspections of the working areas to ensure effective operation. |
When Areté Associates was first presented with the assignment of becoming registered to CMMi, many of the people in the company felt a sense of dread and despair. But after several false starts, the employees realized that much of the work already done for ISO 9001 applied to CMMi as well. They were able to recycle some of their efforts. That way, many documents could be used with little or no changes. To some extent, the company’s CMMi program consists of making an elaborate cross reference to ISO 9001 procedures.
Both ISO 9001 and CMMi help companies become better organized and more efficient in their operation. Both provide excellent marketing tools to show potential customers that they are dealing with a mature organization that has already gone through extensive evaluations by third-party auditors. This helps companies deal with existing customers and makes it easier to get new ones.
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