ISO 9000: What Is It?
ISO stands for the International Organization for Standardization, but it is not a true acronym. (ISO is taken from the Greek word isos, meaning same.)
ISO is a worldwide federation of national standard bodies from 100 countries. This group sets standards and guidelines for quality assurance systems. The International Organization for Standardization sets standards for the European community, and the ANSI/ASQC sets standards for the United States.
ISO 9000 is a series of standards that help organizations define and maintain a quality system. However, don't confuse ISO 9000 with Quality Assurance Programs. ISO 9000 is not a quality assurance system; rather ISO sets standards or guidelines to help companies manage "quality" within their organizations.
Within the ISO 9000 family are specialized standards that include ISO 9001, 9002, and 9003. Below is a description of each:
 | 9001 applies to organizations doing design development, production, testing and servicing of a product. |
| 9002 applies to organizations not having design responsibility. |
| 9003 applies only to testing of a product. |
GLAST LAT will utilize the ISO 9001 standard. This standard includes 20 elements that define a quality management system for organizations that design, manufacture, and service products.
Element 7 (Control of Customer-Supplied Products) and Element 19 (Servicing)
are not applicable to GLAST LAT.
ISO
| Does not dictate how you should perform your work. |
| Does not impose additional requirements on your work processes. |
| Does not require standardizing our work to conform to another quality standard. |
| Does requires us to document how we do our work and then follow our own instructions. |
For internal assessment and Project management purposes, GLAST LAT has determined that
all processes will be managed in accordance with the following ISO principles:
| Say what we do; |
| Do what we say; |
| Prove it! |
GLAST LAT Scope Statement
The scope of the Quality Management System includes all process for
procurement, design, development, and onsite production of flight
hardware, flight software, and associated ground support equipment
interfacing with flight hardware and software, for which the Project has
responsibility. |
