Quality Management System (QMS)
Definition
The documented set of policies, procedures, processes, and records that a laboratory uses to control the quality of its outputs. A QMS covers everything from staff training and equipment calibration to corrective action when errors occur. ISO/IEC 17025 defines the minimum requirements a forensic laboratory QMS must satisfy.
- Covers
- Policies, procedures, processes, records
- Scope examples
- Staff training, equipment calibration, corrective action
- Governing standard
- ISO/IEC 17025
- Applies to
- Forensic laboratory accreditation
Common questions
Why does a lab's QMS matter to the admissibility of its results in court?+
A documented QMS gives opposing counsel and courts a verifiable record that results were produced under controlled, repeatable conditions, so gaps or deviations in the QMS are a common line of cross-examination challenging the reliability of a laboratory finding.
What happens when a laboratory's QMS detects a nonconformance, such as a failed calibration?+
The QMS requires a documented corrective action process: the nonconformance is logged, its potential impact on affected casework is assessed, and cases processed during the affected period may need review or reporting to stakeholders depending on the severity of the deviation.
Related terms
- Chain of Custody
- The documented chronological record of who collected, handled, transferred, and examined a piece of evidence. For digital evidence, chain of custody includes...
- ISO/IEC 17025
- The international standard for testing and calibration laboratories, published jointly by the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission. It...
- Proficiency Testing
- An external quality assurance programme in which a laboratory analyses blind samples distributed by an independent provider and submits results for comparison...
- Staff Elimination Database
- A database of DNA profiles from all laboratory personnel who have access to evidence or consumables. Any profile matching a contributor profile...
- Validation
- The process of establishing through systematic testing that a method does what it claims to do, within defined conditions and with a...