Improving the Application Availability with ISO 9001 - Research Paper Example

?Improving the Application Availability with ISO 9001 The current markets have no tolerance for low quality products. s’ demands and competition in the markets have increased more than ever. It is due to this reason that companies need to take extensive measures to ensure the quality of their business processes that produce or develop the resulting product. ISO 9001 is such a standard that facilitates the setup of quality management systems for organizations. The computer industry has also adapted this standard for the improvement of their business processes and development activities to ensure that their products provide effective services and applications become readily available for the customers. This paper will address the aspects of ISO 9001 that serve to improve the performance of applications. 2. Introduction The current times can be termed as the technological era where software and application development has greatly improved the mode of business. However, the development of software to fulfill some specific need is not the sole purpose of the matter. The quality and reliability of the software also play vital roles in the provision of any service. It is due to this reason that several standards and guidelines have been formulated to judge the productivity and quality of any software. ISO 9001 is one of such standards that can provide complete guidance for production and maintenance processes. The conformance to the standard facilitates the improvement of the application availability. 3. Research Methods Descriptive approach has been adapted in the research study of the respective title. The requirements of the ISO 9001 standard have been studied and their impact on the productivity of the resultant service and application. An ISO 9001 compliant IT company was chosen to further investigate the impact of the adoption of the respective standard on the quality of products and services. 4. Analysis ISO 9001 is a comprehensive set of guidelines that form the basis of compliance for any organization that wishes to become certified with these standards. ISO 9001 focuses on the formulation of a quality management system that helps the organization to fulfill the requirements of the customers in an effective manner. These standards are regularly revised by the International Standards Organization to ensure that they comply with the continuing changes in the markets trends and technologies. The latest version of ISO 9001:2008 has lessened the main categories from 25 to only 5. According to International Organization for Standardization (2011), the 5 main clauses are; Quality Management System Management Responsibilities Resource Management Product Realization Measurement analysis and improvement 4.1 Analysis of an ISO 9001 Compliant Company Amadeus is a well renowned solution provider for the travel industry for the effective management of services. They are known to provide the solutions to some of the well known names in the travel industry. According to Amadeus IT Group SA (2008); the company has possessed a continuing commitment to the incorporation of technology in their business processes and operations; this earned them the ISO 9001:2000 certification in 2000. Amadeus has been one of the first companies of its kind to realize the importance of complying with the ISO standards and finally attained it in the beginning of the present century. They improved their services and infrastructure to comply with the standards of the certification. As a result of the compliance, their systems and customer service witnessed many benefits. The standard has facilitated the development and maintenance of solutions that are able to improve the operations of their clients’ businesses, increase their productivity and profits, earn greater market share etc. 5. Argument Approaches According to Microsoft Corporation (n.d.); application availability is considered to be the promptness of a software or platform to cater to the demands of the user with the desired reply or results. High application availability can be achieved if the business objectives and thus plans are formulated to comply with the quality standards. Intel is one of the most renowned names related to the field of computer technology. They use the ISO 9001:2008 as the benchmark for their quality system. Harbaugh (2011) gave the information that their websites follow the standard to ensure an uninterrupted service that caters to the requests effectively, even in atypical business conditions. The extensive research regarding the ISO 9001 standards highlighted many aspects that point to the improvement of the application availability. These aspects have been classified with respect to the five categories of ISO 9001 standard. 5.1 Management Responsibilities Levine and Toffel (2010) stated that one of the requirements of this standard is to ensure that the top management is focused on the achievement of the respective certification since the commitment of the senior management is reflected upon the other levels in the organization. This aspect makes the top management communicate the need of the quality plans to their resources periodically and thus identify the quality objectives that would cater to their business in an effective manner. As a result of the commitment of the top management, the development, testing, support teams also aim for the achievement of quality in their tasks and operations. ISO 9001 standard promotes the commitment of the management to deploy an organization wide quality system. This commitment provokes the formulation of quality objectives and the alignment of the resources to achieve the objectives. 5.2 Quality Management System ISO 9001 requires a documented quality management system that streamlines the business processes and improves the information flow. It is commonly noticed that the performance and readiness of a service is compromised due to the lack of streamlining of business processes and operations. The required documented quality management system requires the organization to identify the complete flow of their procedures to facilitate a smooth functioning of the business operations. Parsons and Wachter (2010) pointed out that the identification and sequence of the business processes tends to make the service more effective since fewer errors are made in the provision of the service, for example, Ask Art Solutions (2006) explained that the provision of documents like Corrective Action (per ISO 9001 clause 8.5.2) and Preventive Action (per ISO 9001 clause 8.5.3) will provide guidance and plans of action in the instances of crashed servers and increased requests from clients, respectively. The immediate availability of the formulated course of action reduces the delay in catering to the demands of the clients. The control of documents and records facilitates the internal audit of the organization and thus the evaluation of the effectiveness of the service. 5.3 Resource Management According to Bizmanualz Inc (2008), ISO 9001 advocates effective management of resources and infrastructure since they play a vital role in the development of the end product or provision of a service. Human resource and infrastructure, both are important for the provision of an effective and uninterrupted service to the clients. The management needs to ensure the availability of appropriately skilled resources for the required technical positions. Tang and Chang (2010) stated that the correct identification of the job description tends to remove any ambiguities in the roles of the employees; this improves the pace and quality of the work by reducing instances of redundant execution of tasks. Miller and Osinski (1996) explained that specific quality objectives might establish the need for certain skills acquisition by the employees; due to which human resource manager performs training needs assessment and arranges the development programs for the employees. The regular training and development activities of the employees helps the company to stay updated with the latest software and technologies in the market; this aspect provides their customers with effective services. Infrastructure is another important aspect of the provision of a service. It plays an exceptionally important role in the field of software. ISO (2008) explained that ISO 9001 requires the identification, provision and maintenance of the required infrastructure. Software applications and platforms are updated very frequently in the market and customers demand latest features and functions from their service providers. The compliance with ISO 9001 promotes the service providers to be equipped with latest technologies by updating the versions of their software applications and platforms whenever the need arises. Latest versions of platforms help the company combat the prevailing intruding and virus threats on the web thus providing their customers with uninterrupted service. 5.4 Product Realization The product planning needs to be performed in accordance with the requirements of the quality management system. All the phases that might be involved in the provision of the service or development of the product are included in this category. The design, development, testing, deployment and thus maintenance phases have to be planned in accordance with the quality objectives of the organization. The quality objectives of the company also include the alignment of the product with the specifications of the client. Therefore the quality management system will manage all the processes, from the inception of the concept to the deployment phase of the software application. 5.5 Measurement analysis and improvement ISO 9001 requires the company to plan and perform the monitoring, measuring activities to evaluate the level of conformance of the products and services with the quality requirements. Suitable procedures can be identified that can help in the attainment of planned results. Stalhane and Hanssen (2008) proposed an approach to handle unexpected or undesired results; corrective actions are performed so that the customers can attain a quality service and the application can be readily available for the clients. The evidence of conformity that is maintained by the company (in these measuring activities) ensures the auditors about the level of quality that is being provided. 5.6 Challenges in the Adoption of ISO 9001 There are several benefits in the adoption of ISO 9001 by any organization, regardless of its type or size. However, some companies face several challenges in its implementation and compliance to the quality standards to earn the certification. The changes in the organization need to be planned carefully since any adverse changes might introduce non-compliance with the quality standards of ISO 9001. The top management might serve to be an authoritative figure to identify the required changes in the business objectives. Ketola and Roberts (2000) stated that the exclusion of management representatives from such decisions brings about conditions that might prove to threaten the compliance with the standard and thus the quality of the applications. All standards, including ISO 9001, are general in nature since the concerned authorities formulate it as ‘one size fits all’. Stovsky (n.d.) stated that there seems to be a focus on the ‘manufacturing’ process of businesses. The major concern seems to be the variations that might exist in the manufacturing processes of a product. The standard requires the company to follow quality compliant, repeated processes that promote equality and lack of errors during the production process. However, this approach does not seem to work for software development that constitutes unique designs and development requirements from the customers. The main objectives of the quality management systems might be the same in both differing industries but the process of crafting the respective systems might be different with respect to the relevant variables and requirements. In addition, the ‘goodness’ of a design is difficult to compare than the quality of manufactured products therefore it is difficult to evaluate its level of compliance with the quality standards. In this way, the inapplicability of the standard might not serve to improve the application availability. 6 Conclusion The extensive study on the respective subject reaffirms the relevance of the international standards for quality. These standards serve as benchmarks for the evaluation of the quality of any business. ISO 9001 covers extended characteristics that play a role in the provision of a good quality service; the compliance with the standard ensures that the customer requirements will be met effectively and uninterrupted service shall be provided. Monitoring, measuring and corrective activities are performed throughout the product life cycle therefore the resultant product proves to satisfy the needs of the customers as well as quality standards. Recommendations The study of the limitations and drawbacks of the application of ISO 9001 in the software industry have established the need for some propositions. Firstly, the top management should adapt a democratic approach in the decision making aspects that might initiate some changes. The concerned departments’ managerial executives and quality management team should be involved in the process since they would be aware of the details and the effects of the proposed change. This practice will ensure that the business processes continue to comply with the ISO 9001 requirements and the quality of the service is not affected in any manner. Another aspect that needs some consideration is the fact that ISO 9001 seems to focus on the manufacturing process and the repeated processes that might be prevalent in the production of a product. The compliance to such requirements gets difficult for software application development companies. Researchers also argue that the repeated nature of the processes in ISO 9001 refines the business operations and removes any ambiguities of roles. The approach that can be adopted to deal with the uniqueness of the designs and development phases of the software application can be to identify all the requirements in an extensive manner from the client in the initial phase. The amalgamation of the clients’ requirements and quality objectives of the company provides a clear outline of what should be present in the resultant product. The clear identification of these aspects can clearly define the roles of the resources and remove any overlapping responsibilities. Work schedules prove to benefit the quality and facilitate the measuring activities. Martin (1994) stated that software quality metrics should be implemented in the organization, along with the quality management systems, to evaluate the level of quality of the applications. References Ask Art Solutions 2006, Understanding ISO 9001:2000, Mississauga, Ontario. Amadeus IT Group SA, 2008, Amadeus Press Kit Q3 2008, Amadeus. Bizmanualz Inc. 2008, Why Implement an ISO 9001 Quality Management System?, viewed 9 February 2011, Harbaugh, J 2011, ISO 9001:2008 Registrations, viewed 8th February 2011, International Organization for Standardization 2011, ISO 9001:2008 Quality management systems- Requirements, Geneva, Switzerland. ISO 2008, Quality management systems - Requirements, Geneva, Switzerland. Ketola, J., Roberts, K 2000, ‘Redefining Management Responsibility’, Quality Digest. Levine, DI., Toffel, MW 2010, ‘Quality Management and Job Quality: How the ISO 9001 Standard for Quality Management Systems Affects Employees and Employers’, Harvard Business School. Martin, RC 1994, ‘Object Oriented Design Quality Metrics: An Analysis of dependencies’, ROAD, Vol. 2, No. 3. Miller, JA., Osinski, DM 1996, ‘Training Needs Assessment’, International Society for Performance Improvement. Microsoft Corporation. (n.d.), Ensuring application availability (IIS 6.0), viewed 10th February 2011, Parsons, B., Wachter, P 2010, ‘Quality Management System’, Johns Hopkins Medical Institution. Stalhane, T., Hanssen, GK 2008, ‘The Application of ISO 9001 to Agile Software Development’, Product Focused Software Process Improvement - PROFES , pp. 371- 385. Tang, Y., Chang, C 2010, ‘Impact of role ambiguity and role conflict on employee Creativity’, African Journal of Business Management , Vol. 4(6), pp. 869-881. Stovsky, M n.d., Essential Software Engineering, S. Pressman & Associates, viewed 11th February 2011, Read More