II. Fiserv: Case Study
There are four basic tasks that Fiserv must complete in order to develop the quality system and become ISO 9000 compliant. They have adopted a motto:
1) Develop a Quality Team
2) Say What You Do
3) Do What You Say
4) Prove It.
After completing these four tasks using the guidelines provided by ISO, an independent orgranizaton will investigate the company's plan and determine if they are indeed adhering to the 9001 guidelines. This company (TickIT) will then grant certification, and the company will be registered under ISO 9000.
Fiserv believes that by employing this quality system the end product they deliver will be of higher quality, delivered faster and cheaper, and be in tune with their customers requests. Having a higher quality standard will bring in more business, retain the business they already have, and increase the profit margin of the company. Currently they do not compete in the foreign marketplace, but by gaining this certification they have a more competitive edge than other companies without this certification should they expand into that market place.
The Quality Team
There are two basic parts to Fiserv's quality team. There are Quality Liaisons and a Quality Committee. The Quality liaisons are typically team coordinators and/or high level programmers. Their primary purpose is to communicate information regarding the ISO 9000 initiative to other employees with the company. They are the first level of contact for an employee wishing to change any controlled documentation or instill a new procedure or process. Quality Liaison's serve as a buffer between the user of the documentation and the Quality Committee that controls it. Another very important job of the Liaison is to perform audits. These audits are performed once a year as required under the ISO standard and serve to prove that each area is using the standardized procedures, and that the processes are working to achieve the desired end result.
The Quality Committee consists of several members of Senior Management within the product development area. This committee must approve all changes make to any of the controlled documentation. When a change is requested, the Liaison would first investigate the request and then present it to the board for approval. After the committee approves the change they appoint a person within the committee to change the document. Only members of this committee are able to change any of the documentation.
Say what you Do
A Quality Manual is required that will control and drive the entire quality system. Within this manual is the statement of how all other processes,procedures, and documentation will be controlled, and standardized. This document is the backbone of the quality system, as it will determine how every area within the company will develop quality processes. The document is an umbrella over each area within the quality system. Until this document was created and implemented no other area within the company could begin. The Quality Manual defines what must be done, who is to do it, when it is to be done, and how it will be done. This manual was to be completed before any other area in the company could complete their part of the quality system. The Quality Manual was completed in December 1996.
The second task of the quality team was to determine what procedures and processes were in place, and to document them. Many areas were already using procedures and documentation in everyday processing, however, there was little commonality between areas. It was determined what was needed was a common Software Development Life Cycle that all applications could work with and apply to their area. The Quality Liaisons were instrumental in this beginning stage. Using many of the procedures and documents all ready in place, and eliminating the extraneous ones, the Liaisons created, documented, and revised the Software Development Manual.
Their are two major types of documents within the SDM: Work Instructions, and processes/procedural documents. A work instruction is written by a person who performs a specific task. It is a step by step guide on how to complete a function. Every job related task specific to the development, design, implementation and support of software was documented in the SDM. Processes/procedural documents take a work instruction and tie it back to the quality manual. They serve the purpose of showing what standard is being met by the process.
The software development manual took nearly a year to complete the first draft. It covers every area along the development life cycle including design, development, testing, implementation, and support of software. The independent certifier performed a paper audit of this document in December of 1996. A paper audit is just a review of the documentation without regards as to whether it is being implemented. There were over 100 issues or non-conformities found at that time. Since then each nonconformity has been resolved, and the documentation changed to reflect the new procedures.
Do What You Say
After documenting the life cycle, it must be used. It was determined in November that all new projects initiated within Fiserv product development would be initiated under the ISO 9000 quality system. Projects begun before this time would not be required to return to previous stages and use ISO procedures, however they would they have to begin to use these procedures in future stages of development, where it was feasible to do so. According the quality team the ISO system was implemented in the middle of November.
Prove IT
A major function of the Quality Liaisons is to perform internal audits. Audits are a method used to check the quality system that was put in place is being used, and that it works. Every area in the company must be internally audited once and year. Any discrepancies found during this audit is documented by the Liaison. A discrepancy or nonconformity is found when a documented process is not being used, used incorrectly, or a process is being used that is not documented. After the audit any non-conformities would be looked at the by the members of the Quality Team for that area and either documentation changed to resolve missing procedures, or the process changed to remove or correct procedures that are documented. Another audit is then performed to verify the non-conformities have been resolved.
Audits are performed by liaisons from outside the area being auditing. They are a requirement of ISO 9000, and are necessary to proving to the external auditors that the procedures put in place are working. At the current time Fiserv has completed 70% of all the required audits. Many areas have to be re-audited due to nonconformities. The completion date of all internal audits is targeted for May 1997. However, the audit process is ongoing and will be performed all year round so that each area is audited the required once a year.