Management system standards trace their beginnings to the use of simple preventive practices that were developed and used at the beginning of the industrial revolution. These preventive practices included responses to common problems, for example, ensuring changes are communicated to everyone who needs to know about the change, and attacking the cause of a problem, not just the symptom. Management systems evolved from these simple beginnings and eventually became the formally defined preventive methodologies that today contain a long list of universally accepted preventive practices.

From the time widely accepted management system standards (such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and others) came into common use in the late 1980s and early 1990s, many myths and misunderstandings related to their implementation and use have emerged. Belief in these myths is the most common barrier to the use of management system standards and, in addition, the greatest cause of frustration and diminished benefits on the part of users. Understanding these myths can help organizations choose to adopt a management system and ultimately achieve the intended benefits embedded within all management system standards. This paper has been written to identify and debunk the most common myths.