The ISO 9000 family of standards are standards of "quality" and "continuous quality management, established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that can be applied in any systematic organization or activity that is oriented to the production of goods or services. They consist of standards and guidelines related to management systems and specific tools and methods of auditing (the process of verifying that the management systems comply with the standard). Background: The family of standards first appeared in 1987 on the basis of a standard British Standard (BS), and spread mainly from its 1994 version, being now in its 2008 version, published on November 13, 2008 The main family norm is currently ISO 9001:2008 – Systems Quality Management – Requirements. Another binding to the previous standard: ISO 9004:2000 – Systems Quality Management – Guidelines for performance improvements. The ISO 9000 standards 1994 were primarily designed for organizations engaged in the production process and, therefore, its implementation in the utilities was very hard and is therefore still in the belief that a system is quite bureaucratic.

With the 2000 review have resulted in a much less bureaucratic standard for organizations of all kinds, and also can be applied without problems in service industries and even public administration. To check compliance with the requirements of the standard, there are few certification bodies that offer their own certificates and allow the seal. These entities are protected by national bodies that give them accreditation. For implementation, it is desirable to support the organization a consulting firm that has good references, and the firm commitment of the Directorate that wants to implement the system, since it is necessary to devote staff time to implement the company System of quality management.