ISO 9001 & Risk Management

It is generally accepted that quality and risk management principles are closely related. The 2015 version of ISO 9001 recognizes the connection.

What many design professionals don’t understand is that risk – besides having the potential to destroy practice, also includes opportunities to differentiate proposals and provide better service to clients.

One of the classic examples of risk in design is that of the New York Citicorp building, shown left. A design error, resulting from the unusual configuration of supporting columns, created the possibility of building collapse under certain wind conditions.

For details of this story, see https://bit.ly/2hm4Rvk and https://slate.me/2ivm3w1.

See chapters 8.6 in Managing Quality in Architecture 2nd Edition for more information on Risk Management vs. Quality Management.