The ISO9000 standards address the management of quality and related practices. The official body that oversees this family of standards is the International Organization of Standardization. The ISO9000 standards outline an international consensus on the requirements of an appropriate quality management framework.

The ISO9000 family contains a number of standards which relate to different operations or departments of a business, these are:

-ISO9001: relates to the quality management system regarding product/service design, development, production, installation, and servicing.

-ISO9002: relates to the quality management system regarding product/service production, installation, and servicing only.

-ISO9003:> relates to the quality management system regarding product/service final inspection and testing.

One of the most difficult aspects of becoming compliant with the ISO900 quality standards is the work required to bring the current state quality systems up to a standard that meets the requirements set out in the standards framework. In order to then become ISO9000 accredited the business must be audited in all areas it wishes to claim compliance with the standards. This auditing process is usually done by independent third parties which will also perform audits at regular time intervals to make sure the quality management system is operating in a manner that meets the standards. More information regarding the ISO900 standard can be found at the International Organization of Standardization’s website: www.iso.org.