Certifying a Project Management Quality System to the ISO 9001: 2000 Quality Management Standard

The  project management best practices of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the requirements of the International Organization of Standarization (ISO) 9001:2000 quality management standard (ISO, 2000) (the quality management standard) have traditionally been separated by a gap between the uniqueness of projects on one side and the repetitive character of series or mass production in manufacturing on the other. Despite this gap, the quality management standard has increasingly been applied in disciplines outside manufacturing. Following this trend, project management quality systems also can be developed and registered (certified) to the quality management standard. This paper is a “lessons learned” from a successful certification of organizational project management practices to the ISO 9001:2000 quality management standard in 2007.  In November 2008, the ISO 9001:2008 quality management standard was been released. This is paper is relating to ISO 9001:2000.  It provides an impression of the challenges and approaches taken to achieve certification to the standard. 

With certification of the project management practices to the quality management standard as the goal, the project management practices must be aligned with the requirements of the quality management standard, and then assessed and recognized by a registrar such …