Management Systems

The management system concept is showing up in a number of international standards. These standards need an organisational commitment to institutionalize the practices used within an organisation. Some examples are:

• Quality Management System: ISO 9001:2000
• Environmental Management System: ISO 14001:2004
• Information Security Management System: ISO 27001: 2005, ISO 27002:2005

The common element across the 3 standards is the concept of the management system. The notion of a management system is critical to sustainable business performance.

A Management System has the following characteristics:

• Every Management or Leadership Team has a documented management system.
• The documented management system describes the work performed by the team.
• Any external standards can be traced to the work in the management system
• The people carrying out the work are trained on their part in the management system
• The management system is checked for effectiveness by the management team.
• The Management team continually improves the management system.

The Big Picture describes the key elements of a management system.

The term Business Management System is being used in some organisations to incorporate the above characteristics and standards to ensure that a single management system is used across the organisation.

The management system provides the management framework for the Business Processes used in the organisation. The Quality Management System is documented in a Quality Manual.

The Management System concept and structure can be applied to the approach to meet the CMMI® requirements. The processes in this model are documented in an OSSP.

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