The QM-IDI interface ("Inspection Data Interface in Quality Management") is an open interface designed for exchanging inspection processing data between the QM application component and external systems. Inspection specifications defined in the QM component are transferred to the external system. The external system independently carries out the inspection and transfers the results back to QM.

The following graphic shows how the R/3 System interacts with a subsystem.

The transfer between subsystem and QM is done synchronously as direct program-to-program communication. The subsystem takes over the active part in establishing the communication both for requesting the inspection specifications and for retransferring the result data. This type of communication has the advantage that the subsystem on its own can request inspection lots from QM for further processing and adapt the extent of its worklist to its specific processing times and capacities according to extensive selection criteria.

SAP provides function modules for transferring the inspection specifications and for retransferring the inspection results. These function modules can be invoked from "non-SAP systems" and then run in the QM component.