ISO 9001 quality management system standards

Quality Management

Improving Service Delivery and Knowledge Acquisition

Through Quality Management

Creating a solid foundation for continual improvement of a quality assurance program needs to take into account the customer-centric aspects of ISO 9001:2008, balancing them with the greater precision of quality objectives and measurement. As a graduate-level program is by nature longitudinal in scope encompassing many different experiences, the use of quality plan auditing and continual Corrective Action Preventative Action (CAPA) programs are essential. Only by incorporating the foundational elements of IS0 9001: 2008, quality plan auditing and CAPA can a graduate-level program stay aligned to quality requirements while also remaining agile enough to change with quality standards over time.

Triangulating a graduate-level curriculum to these objectives of fidelity to ISO standards while remaining agile enough to change with industry requirements is exemplified in the presentation given by Milton Krivokuca DBA titled Quality and Effectiveness Assessment in Higher Education. The foundational elements of the presentation including its referential use of ISO 9001:2008 foundational elements and extensive use of quality plan auditing illustrate a methodology that can be used for keeping a graduate-level program aligned with quality objectives and ISO standards. What is unique about the presentation is the use of attitudinal-based measures for CAPA analysis and as an element of quality plan auditing. The foundational elements taken together create a stable framework which can be used for applying CAPA-based improvements to a course while at the same time allowing for quality objectives to be adjusted based on students' program performance over time. The presentation also provides a series of benchmarks that can be used for creating customized metrics of quality performance by learning program, down to the course level.

Of the three areas of ISO 9001: 2008, quality plan auditing and CAPA, the one that has the greatest potential to improve service delivery and knowledge acquisition for the MSQA program is the second. As Milton Krivokuca's presentation illustrates, quality plan auditing has the potential to be used as a framework encompasses empirically derived student academic performance, attitudinal data, and longitudinal career data over time. A quality plan audit can also be used to determine how effectively a given program is in managing the changing nature of ISO: 9001 requirements, while also staying agile enough to stays aligned with the changing nature of quality management educational requirements and standards. A quality plan audit also provides a means of measuring instructor performance relative to each student population, which is often missed in quality assessments in other approaches referentially mentioned in Milton Krivokuca's presentation. Finally a quality plan auditing approach to evaluating service delivery and knowledge acquisition can also provide greater insights into which aspects of the ISO: 9001 standards, CAPA, non-conformance, corrective action (NC/CA) and the integration of total quality management techniques that integrate quality systems with business strategy. As quality-management is a multifaceted discipline, having quality plan auditing as the foundation for improving service delivery and knowledge acquisition provides a full 360-degree feedback of factors contributing to or detracting from quality objectives being met over time.