Procruste

Procrustes (or Procuste) was a robber of Attica, who placed all who fell into his hands upon an iron bed. If they were longer than the bed, he cut off the legs; if shorter, he stretched them till they fitted it. Any attempt to reduce men to one standard, one way of thinking, or one way of acting, is called placing them on Procrustes' bed, and the person who makes the attempt is called Procrustes. See w:Procrustes for more on this original myth, which is of significance to trolls who often protest such standardizing treatment.

Project Procrustes [1] is a requirements { policies, procedures, and technology } interoperability database. Its name comes from the mythological inn-keeper. And its moral is 'do you make your own bed and lie in it'?

This metaphor evolves into the extreme fitness tests for products, including safety standards, and insists for example, that leaders, upon declaring a town's water supply to be safe, do themselves take a drink.

A consumer is either on the leading edge or the bleeding edge of change. Small markets are often dominated by monopolies. Small organizations, especially not-for-profits will be champions of alternatives.

But does the customer/consumer always have a choice? Yes, because organizations are procrustified through extreme standardization.

Q. How does above differ from ISO 9000 standardization?

A. It is an agile process.