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
• Service Management [System]: ITIL V3

The common element across the 4 areas 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 (See The Big Picture):

• Every team has a management system that is usually documented.
• The documented management system describes the work performed by the team.
• Any relevant external standards can be traced to the work in the documented management system
• The people carrying out the work are trained on their part in the management system
• Roles and responsibilities are described in the process responsibility chart.
• The management system is checked for effectiveness by the team.
• The team continually improves the management system.

The basic capabilities of the management system create the environment for the delivery of value to customers.

The Big Picture describes the key elements of a management system. A core set of management services support the team use the 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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