ISO 9000 was originally created by the British Standard Institute as BS 5750. The standard is now maintained by ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and administered by accreditation and certification bodies.
Some countries accepted ISO 9000 as their national standard. Many countries have formed accreditation bodies to authorize certification bodies, which audit organizations applying for ISO 9001 compliance certification. * note * It is not possible to be certified to ISO 9000. Although commonly referred to ISO 9000:2000 certification , the actual standard to which an organization's quality management can be certified is ISO 9001:2000. Both the accreditation bodies and the certification bodies charge fees for their services. The various accreditation bodies have mutual agreements with each other to ensure that certificates issued by one of the accredited certification bodies (CB) is world-wide accepted.

The applying organization is assessed based on an extensive sample of its sites, functions, products, services, and processes and a list of problems ("action requests" or "non-compliances") made known to management. If there are no major problems on this list, the certification body will issue an ISO 9001 certificate (see note above) for each geographical site it has visited once it receives a satisfactory improvement plan from the management showing how any problems will be resolved.

An ISO certificate is not a once-and-for-all award, but must be renewed at regular intervals recommended by the certification body — usually around 3 years.