Quality (business) and those of competitors (the quality gap). In the past two decades this quality gap has been gradually decreasing between competitive products and services. This is partly due to the contracting (also called outsourcing) of manufacturing to countries like China and India, as well internationalization of trade and competition. These countries, among many others, have raised their own standards of quality in order to meet international standards and customer demands. The ISO 9000 series of standards are probably the best known international standards for quality management, though specialized standards such as ISO 15189 (for medical laboratories) and ISO 14001 (for
ISO 21500 re-designation of ANSI/PMI 99-001-2004): 11/20/2008. ISO plans for this standard (21500) to be the first in a family of project management standards. ISO also designed this standard to align with other, related standards such as ISO 10005:2005 Quality management systems − Guidelines for quality plans, ISO 10006:2003 Quality management systems − Guidelines for quality management in projects, ISO 10007:2003 Quality management systems − Guidelines for configuration management, ISO 31000:2009 Risk management – Principles and guidelines. The process approach to project management developed in the 1980s, largely in Europe. The main focus of this approach is the use of structured processes