ISO/IEC 90003:2004 provides guidance for organizations in the application of ISO 9001:2000 to the acquisition, supply, development, operation and maintenance of computer software and related support services. ISO/IEC 90003:2004 does not add to or otherwise change the requirements of ISO 9001:2000.

The guidelines provided in ISO/IEC 90003:2004 are not intended to be used as assessment criteria in quality management system registration/certification.

The application of ISO/IEC 90003:2004 is appropriate to software that is

• part of a commercial contract with another organization,
• a product available for a market sector,
• used to support the processes of an organization,
• embedded in a hardware product, or
• related to software services.

Some organizations may be involved in all the above activities; others may specialize in one area. Whatever the situation, the organization's quality management system should cover all aspects (software related and non-software related) of the business.

ISO/IEC 90003:2004 identifies the issues which should be addressed and is independent of the technology, life cycle models, development processes, sequence of activities and organizational structure used by an organization. Additional guidance and frequent references to the ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 software engineering standards are provided to assist in the application of ISO 9001:2000: in particular ISO/IEC 12207, ISO/IEC TR 9126, ISO/IEC 14598, ISO/IEC 15939 and ISO/IEC TR 15504.