Our quality management system, which is part of the company's Pathway Process, has been independently assessed and approved as meeting the standards for ISO 9001:2000
The relevant certificate is attached at the end of this section, and provides assurance that we have quality processes in place to support the provision of software development services and consultancy.
The Pathway Process governs all aspects of the supply of the company's products and services, and provides clear mechanisms for the realisation of the corporate quality goals. It represents an innovative approach to the realisation of software quality, and promotes new ways of thinking that deliver extraordinary value to our clients. The fundamental processes are summarised in the diagram below.
The Quality Management function is independent of the project delivery function, and this provides the assurance that the Quality Manager and any staff reporting to him are not unduly influenced by the priorities that are associated with the delivery of the system.
An introduction to the Quality Management System is an intrinsic part of the induction of new starters to the company, and this is provided in the form of an overview of the company's quality manual and of the Pathway Process as a whole. The information is held as a guidance page on the company Intranet with a set of links to relevant documents.
All new starters are assigned a mentor within the company who can guide and support them in establishing an understanding of the organisation's goals and structures.
The entire QMS is held in configuration management, and is versioned to ensure the integrity of the system. Proposed changes may be discussed in a dedicated discussion database, and are then submitted for consideration by the Pathway Review Board via the company's standard change management tool. Following release of a new version of the QMS, the change log is posted to the Pathway site and all staff are notified of the existence of the revised material.
Members of the QA team have personal responsibility for raising awareness of the changes, and of ensuring that projects are using any additional or changed items.
Digital Steps Limited would be pleased to review the results of previous QA audits with clients and potential clients. The information is held in corporate and project databases, and clearly indicates any issues, the proposed resolution, the staff responsible for remediation, and any changes to processes required to prevent recurrence.
We regard quality as key in the delivery of our service to our clients, and we dedicate a significant amount of time to the planning, assessment and implementation of tools, techniques and processes to significantly increase quality.
