TickIT? Tick What?

What is TickIT?

The computer/IT industry has it's own quality requirements and an acronym, "TickIT". The rules on companies seeking approval to ISO 9000 have just been relaxed and approval can now be obtained to ISO 9001 by software companies without use of TickIT. This is therefore an appropriate time to reflect on the scheme and the approach companies should take in the future.

TickIT is not truly an acronym. The "Tick" comes from the logo, the "IT" for information technology. Once decoded, the first hurdle has been overcome and it is possible to see that the TickIT initiative applies to any company involved in Information Technology but it mainly applies where software development forms a significant or critical part of the system.

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Why seek TickIT approval?

So why seek TickIT approval rather than just ISO 9001, "the easy option?" If you have designed your quality system to meet your own needs and made sure that every part of your organisation is within the quality system, then meeting either ISO 9001 or TickIT requirements should not be an issue.

The disadvantage of seeking TickIT approval, is there are a limited number of TickIT approved assessors (one of the problems with the scheme), so you may find a longer lead times with the selected assessment body. This may also result in higher charges than for ISO 9001 approval.

The advantage of TickIT approval, is that you will have an assessor with a proven record in the IT industry who is more likely to understand your business and why you are working in a particular way. Each assessor must pass an interview and meet a number of defined criteria for software experience and project management. This avoids the risk of assessment by people with good intention but very little software knowledge. The TickIT documentation provides a detailed set of issues to be addressed by your quality system compared with a broader statement in ISO 9001 that is open to the assessors interpretation. In marketing terms the logo will still separate the two levels of approval and whilst officially ISO 9001 and TickIT approved organisations should be treated equally the perception is that TickIT is a higher level of approval.

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What does TickIT require?

The "TickIT guide" is as the title implies a guide, your company must set its own quality goal post, and there is no definitive requirement for a particular methodology or life cycle model. Neither is the level of testing, design review stages nor configuration control system defined. Nor whether your quality should be documented on procedures one page long or 99 pages. What is required is to be able to demonstrate that the company has control of quality. For example you should not consider spending an arm and a leg getting new CASE packages or the latest and greatest validated software tool. The emphasis is on the words "appropriate" and "assist", there are no "must" or "shall". If you need the tools you must have them, if the tools are on the "wouldn't it be nice list", the guide does not require a company to have them. Recently I was talking to a Project Manager for a major Japanese company, he had stopped his British supplier introducing a new methodology on his project. "I like the quality of their software," he said, "why should they experiment with new tools on my project?"

Attempting to obtain approval without being prepared, on the basis that the problems might not be noticed, is unlikely to be successful. On the other hand, companies should not seek perfection before applying for approval for most companies six to nine months from start of the project to assessment date, is realistic.

The final point is that common sense should prevail, it is true of any quality system, but it is the requirement most often missed. The same basic systems described in the "TickIT guide" can be applied to games machines, banking systems, embedded software, safety critical aircraft control systems, or any other application but how the requirements are met will be different. Bad quality systems will add cost, demoralise staff and could result in loss of life. Good systems save money and bring customers back to the company.

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