Peer reviews with a perspective based approach as an alternative to implement ISO 9001 audits

Abstract

In this work we show a technique to implement a quality management system for software development companies which complies with the ISO 9001 standard and also with agile development methodologies. We show how the principles of ISO 9001 have much in common with Agile principles, and how both of them can be combined to get improved results. In particular, we show a way to implement Peer Reviews as an extension of the audit concept, ensuring compliance with the ISO 19011 standard. We also discuss how the practices “inspect” and “adapt”, from agile methodology, are related to the Plan–Do–Check– Act (PDCA) Deming cycle. We evaluate our approach analyzing the experience in two software enterprises who obtained their ISO 9001:2008 certification while using Agile methodologies. We conclude that peer reviews are an excellent tool for training and the audit process, where experienced people can be easily involved. We think that our approach is suitable without any major adjustments for the 9001:2015 version.