Quality and compliance management
Quality is no random thing—it's the result of processes that are lived and breathed.
Quality and compliance management ensures that products not only function as expected, but are also safe, reliable, and compliant with standards. In today's development processes, quality means much more than just testing at the end of the project shortly before release. Quality is a consistent principle that must be thought through and practiced in all phases of development.
Compliance, in turn, ensures that legal and industry-specific requirements – such as those from standards like ISO 26262, ASPICE, DO-178C, or IEC 62304—are consistently met and that compliance can be fully and reproducibly verified.
Together, quality and compliance form the foundation for trust, customer satisfaction, and sustainable success.
Why quality and compliance management is essential
Products are becoming increasingly complex, software contents are on the rise, and regulatory requirements are growing. Without clearly defined quality processes and supporting documentation, the risk of recalls, liability claims, and reputational damage increases.
Professional quality and compliance management creates structure: it defines which standards are to be adhered to, checks compliance, and ensures that all development activities are documented and traceable.
This ensures product quality and provides proof that all specifications have been met – a key prerequisite for successful audits, certifications, and customer orders.
Success factors for quality in daily practice
Successful quality management begins with clearly defined processes and responsibilities. It is crucial to understand quality not as a control function, but as an integral part of engineering.
Automated reports, regular reviews, and objective metrics help maintain an overview. Close cooperation between quality assurance, development, and testing teams is equally important – this is the only way to achieve a holistic understanding of quality.
Ideally, the necessary workflows and documentation requirements are not perceived as additional work, but also contribute to increase efficiency and improve teamwork. This creates an opportunity to improve processes and minimize risks.
How quality and compliance management interacts with other disciplines
Quality management is at the heart of all engineering disciplines. It checks all artifacts in the lifecycle, e.g., whether requirements have been fully implemented, models are consistent, tests are successful, and variants are correctly documented.
Quality criteria are defined in requirements management, their fulfillment is checked in test management, and approval processes in workflow and task management ensure documentation and traceability.
This close integration creates a continuous quality chain – from the initial request to the certified product.
Some examples of popular tools in quality and compliance management
IBM Engineering Lifecycle Optimization – Publishing (PUB)
Polarion ALM
An integrated platform that combines requirements, tests, and quality assurance in a single system. Particularly strong in traceability and verification for safety-critical development projects.
Codebeamer (Intland/PTC)
An application lifecycle management tool with a focus on compliance in regulated industries. It offers preconfigured processes and templates for standards such as ISO 13485, ASPICE, and FDA 21 CFR Part 11.
Note:
Quality and compliance management thrives on precisely defined processes that are accepted and practiced by the entire team.
The tools mentioned here are examples and may be more or less suitable for a specific project situation, depending on the industry, standards environment, and organizational structure.
It is crucial that processes within the company are consistently maintained, free of contradictions, and aligned. Selection of suitable tools should be done only after this has been established.