The Consortium for IT Software Quality (CISQ) is an IT industry leadership group comprising IT executives from the Global 2000, system integrators, outsourced service providers, and software technology vendors committed to making dramatic improvements in the quality of IT application software.

Jointly organized by the Software Engineering Institute

Software Engineering Institute

The Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute is a federally funded research and development center headquartered on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. SEI also has offices in Arlington, Virginia, and Frankfurt, Germany. The SEI operates...

 (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....

 and the Object Management Group

Object Management Group

Object Management Group is a consortium, originally aimed at setting standards for distributed object-oriented systems, and is now focused on modeling and model-based standards.- Overview :...

 (OMG), CISQ is designed to be a neutral forum in which customers and suppliers of IT application software can develop an industry-wide agenda of actions for defining, measuring, and improving IT software quality.

The founders of CISQ are Dr. Paul D. Nielsen, Director and CEO of SEI and Dr. Richard Mark Soley

Richard Soley

Dr. Richard Mark Soley is the chair and CEO of Object Management Group, Inc. ; as such, the vision and direction of the consortium are his responsibility...

, Chairman and CEO of OMG

Object Management Group

Object Management Group is a consortium, originally aimed at setting standards for distributed object-oriented systems, and is now focused on modeling and model-based standards.- Overview :...

. Dr. Bill Curtis, the co-author of the CMM framework is CISQ's first Director. Software measurement and productivity expert Capers Jones

Capers Jones

Capers Jones is a specialist in software engineering methodologies, and is often associated with the function point model of cost estimation. He also collects data on software quality, software risks, and software best practices. His many computer science publications have been widely used by many...

is a CISQ Distinguished Advisor.

CISQ Objectives

• 1. Advise, educate, and be the voice to business and government leaders on the strategic and mission critical importance of IT software quality
• 2. Develop standard measures of quality attributes to be used by IT and the business for evaluating the software quality and risk of multi-tier IT applications.
• 3. Propose methods for using these quality measures in negotiating and managing the acquisition or maintenance of IT application software.
• 4. Develop and promote professional licensing for those providing services to assess the quality of IT application software.
• 5. Establish an online IT industry forum for addressing IT application software quality issues.