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Subject:ISO 9000... From:Damien Braniff <Damien_Braniff -at- PAC -dot- CO -dot- UK> Date:Tue, 25 Nov 1997 15:47:09 +0000
Joe Miller wrote:
"The purpose of ISO 9000, as I understand it (the company
I work for is ISO 9001 certified), has nothing to do with
quality."
Too true - I "did" quality at college for 2 years when writing was very
quiet here (another string to your bow is always useful) and I was told by
one lecturer that it's nothing to do with quality and all to do with
consistency.
He said he'd never buy from/use a company just because it was ISO 9000
compliant. If it produced crap and was compliant it would always produce
crap! However, if it produced good kit with good accompanying lit and was
compliant then the chance were it would continue to do so.
We should insist (and I'm sure most of us do) that we produce quality docs
regardless of whether ISO compliant or not. This does of course raise the
issue of exactly how you define quality!! :-)