# Presentation: 793541

**NASA Headquarters (HQ)****ISO 9001 Registration Overview**Scott M. HollidayDirectorISO 9001 Program Office (Code JI)NASA HQ

## Background - Key Milestones

**November 1996 - NASA Administrator directs all NASA Centers **_**AND**_** HQ to be certified to ISO 9001 NLT 9/30/99**
**October 1997 - NASA HQ senior management decides to register the work of NASA’s Strategic Enterprises (SE) to ISO 9001, but all efforts flounder until May 1998; involves 5 offices**
**May 1998 - ISO 9001 Program Office established to lead the day-to-day effort required to achieve and maintain registration**
- Plan is developed utilizing a core staff, and matrixed team of SE representatives and key “functional” staff
- Plan calls for May, 1999 registration of SE scope
**May 1999 - NASA HQ SE’s are successfully registered to ISO 9001**
**June 1999 - NASA HQ senior management decides to broaden the scope of registration to all HQ offices (23 total)**
**May 2000 - All offices at NASA HQ are successfully registered**

## Why ISO 9001?

**Administrator decision, i.e., top-down direction**
**“****Say what you do, do what you say and prove it” was appealing and promised much needed discipline and accountability**
**Expansion of NASA international partnerships, especially with Space Station -  registration viewed as a tool to improve our performance and build customer and stakeholder confidence**
**Widely accepted in industry**
**Fully deploy recent strategic and program/project management initiatives**
**Establish **_**one**_** Quality Management System (QMS) for HQ parts of key Agency processes**
**Provide a measure of continuity and stability to HQ employees after downsizing from ~ 2,500 to 950.**

## Benefits

**1st question is always “what did you save?”  **_**Answer**_** - can’t tell because:  1)  after downsizing from 2,500 to 950 our focus was not to cut costs, therefore didn’t focus on it; 2)  no baseline, i.e., we don’t account for costs by process, and don’t measure cost of processes now, but know we’re more effective and efficient**
**Reengineering - impossible to implement a QMS that conforms to ISO 9001 without undertaking some to great amount of reengineering; all key processes are much “better” than previously**
**Reduced rework - minimize variability of quality of products and services through consistency and better understanding of processes**
**Better control of and understanding of documentation and records results in better products and services and traceability**
**Improved communication and understanding of organizational goals at all levels, and how employees fit in - focused training**
**Enhanced discipline in taking corrective action by addressing root causes and verifying effectiveness vice putting bandaids on symptoms**

## Lessons learned

**Was it worth it?  ABSOLUTELY**
**Would we do it again?  Not sure.  In many cases, especially for a federal agency HQ, this is a dramatic change to the modus operandi requiring a serious commitment by top management (as opposed to trying to check the box), and lots of hard work.**
**Don’t focus so much on what needs to be done that you lose sight of the fact that the hardest part is not doing “the work,” it’s managing the change.**
**See the big picture or risk suboptimizing**
**Determine early on your reasons for doing, set measurable goals, take baseline measurements, and monitor**
**Plan well - ambitious but achievable milestones keeping in mind:**
- being too ambitious can result in cutting some corners,
- the work fits the time, and
- “idle hands are the devil’s workshop,” i.e., it gives the “saboteurs” more time to plan and execute their strategy