There are many quality improvement methodologies available, and some can be used together, or may overlap. The following are some examples, and how they relate to the Excellence Model:

1. TQM (Total Quality Management)
   The concept of Total Quality Management predates the Excellence Model, and originally implied a more general approach to gaining improvement throughout the whole organisation - i.e. looking at the organisation in its totality. It is arguable that the Excellence Model has now become THE TQM methodology in that it is designed to look at all aspects of an organisation, with virtually no stone left un-turned in the search for service excellence. TQM can be regarded as a more "holistic" approach to quality improvement, a term that is also often applied to the Excellence Model.
2. ISO9000
   ISO9000 has been around for many years, originally as BS5750 when it was primarily aimed at manufacturing processes. With the rise of service sector industries ISO9000 has had to evolve. The most recent revision to the standard, introduced in Y2000, is generally considered to have brought it in much closer alignment with the concepts that underpin the Excellence Model. ISO9000 was, and still is to a great degree, seen as being primarily about process, and this therefore relates closely with the Process element of the Excellence Model.
3. Best practice
   The Excellence Model is ultimately all about "Best Practice". An organisation can of course set best practice benchmarks based upon its observations of other businesses within its sector, but The Model is based on best practice throughout industry. Using The Model does not however preclude any specific best practice or benchmarking exercises based on specific production or service techniques.
4. IIP
   Investors in People is essentially about optimising people resources, ultimately for the benefit of the organisation. One of the key Enabler criteria on which the Excellence Model is based is that of "People", and this relates to the "People Results" element. This then clearly suggests the importance given to people issues by the model and the link to IIP.
5. Balanced Scorecard
   The Balanced Scorecard technique (originally devised by Kaplan & Norton), allows businesses to bring together all the key measures that are considered as important to that business, whether say customer service, financial, or people related, and then to present these in the form of management reports that will show clearly what is working well and what needs attention. Although the Excellence Model does not specifically prescribe a balanced scorecard, it is very much measurement oriented, and will lead many users down this path.

Many quality improvement methods, and in particular say ISO9000 and IIP, are often seen as precursors to using the Excellence Model in that these and others tend to focus only on specific areas, whereas the Excellence Model is a more overarching quality improvement methodology.