Thread: (offtopic) ISO certificates

Hello,

This is probably offtopic.  I need some advice about what to answer to
an email received in the ro@postgresql.org mailbox.

------------------
Quoting tiberiu <tiberiu.giurgescu@romsys.ro>:
> Hello,
>
> We have a project which requires PostgreSQL 8.1 database.
> Because it is a EU financed project, we need a ISO certificate for the
> software product.
> If you can help us to obtain a copy of such a certificate, please help us,
> otherwise please forward this request to the right person.
> Give us a feedback soon as you can.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Tiberiu Giurgescu
------------------------

"ISO certificate" is quite vague because there are different types of
certitifcates AFAIK.
He is probably asking about ISO 9001, for quality system.

I am tempted to answer that we are not ISO certified.  And to explain
that we will
probably never have such a certificate because in an opensource
project it is not
possible to force everyone to work according to some strict procedures .

Is this correct ?

I'm wondering whether it's true that all EU financed projects must use
only software
from ISO-certified sources .


--
Adrian Maier

Adrian,

please have a look at http://pypy.org/

PyPy is financed by the EU commission, and they sureley have no certificate. Beatrice During from Changemaker has done lots of the EU negotiations, if you need a personal contact let me know.

On the other hand: PostgreSQL complies to ISO standards. Compliance to xxx% to the ISO of SQL99, yyy% to the ISO of SQL2003 (it's stated within the documentation somewhere) 
Hm. PostgreSQL complies to very very strict procedures: there are regression test for big chunks of PostgreSQL. The acceptance process of patches is also highly structured.
It's more a question to find somebody to document and certify this; but if he is talking big money, that "certificat" would be a cheap aspect.

Harald
--
GHUM Harald Massa
persuadere et programmare
Harald Armin Massa
Reinsburgstraße 202b
70197 Stuttgart
0173/9409607
-
Python: the only language with more web frameworks than keywords.
-- Harald A. Massa, December 2005
http://groups.google.de/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/285b9adeec188fb2

Harald Armin Massa wrote:
> Hm. PostgreSQL complies to very very strict procedures: there are
> regression test for big chunks of PostgreSQL. The acceptance process
> of patches is also highly structured.

You must be new here. :-)

--
Peter Eisentraut
http://developer.postgresql.org/~petere/

On Tue, Sep 26, 2006 at 10:04:36AM +0300, Adrian Maier wrote:
> I am tempted to answer that we are not ISO certified.  And to explain
> that we will
> probably never have such a certificate because in an opensource
> project it is not
> possible to force everyone to work according to some strict procedures .
>
> Is this correct ?

It's sort of worse.  The ISO 900x certifications have to do with
certifying an organisation that is legally responsible for some
resulting product or service.

There _is_ no such organisation for PostgreSQL, at least in the sense
needed for this sort of certification.

If someone wanted to use PostgreSQL under an ISO 9000 regime, what
they could do is set up a company that did the certification of the
acceptance of the code, the packaging of the code, and the delivery
of the code.  Indeed, it's entirely possible that one of the support
companies actually does this.

A

--
Andrew Sullivan  | ajs@crankycanuck.ca
The fact that technology doesn't work is no bar to success in the marketplace.
        --Philip Greenspun

> "ISO certificate" is quite vague because there are different types of
> certitifcates AFAIK.
> He is probably asking about ISO 9001, for quality system.
>
> I am tempted to answer that we are not ISO certified.  And to explain
> that we will
> probably never have such a certificate because in an opensource
> project it is not
> possible to force everyone to work according to some strict procedures .
>
> Is this correct ?
>
> I'm wondering whether it's true that all EU financed projects must use
> only software
> from ISO-certified sources .

Definitly not true.
Probably some PHB threw some random mention of ISO 9001 into the project
proposal - the project was accepted - and now they're a stuck trying to
comply with this.

Bye,
Chris.