No one can predict all of the questions that an auditor will ask, but you can bet that that following five will be among them. Be prepared to answer these queries from your auditor:
What is your quality (or environmental, safety, information security) policy? This is a basic question and one that is very likely to take center stage during the audit. The focus on this question subsides during periodic audits, primarily because the organization’s management system matures, and the same auditor often assesses one company multiple times.
Intent behind the question: Ascertain whether the organization has done a good enough job communicating the policy to its employees, and that they have internalized the organization’s perspective regarding quality.
Best Response: Employees know where to find the quality policy and are able to articulate in their own words what the policy means to them and how it affects their work, as well as their appreciation and understanding of quality.
What are your objectives? This is a question that applies to everyone, not just managers. It is expected that objectives are represented with data and charts, but not absolutely required. Intent behind the question: Ascertain whether the company has goals it wants to achieve and that it measures and tracks process or product performance, as a whole or individually by department or employee.
Best response: Employees know where to find the quality objectives, and they understand exactly why they have been established and what their purpose is. They know what the desired goal is and how to tell whether it has been achieved. They know how to initiate corrective action when the desired state is not achieved.
Where do you get your procedures from? Procedures or documents in general are an integral part of ISO-compliant management systems; you need them to ensure processes are in control. Therefore, questions regarding documents are definitely going to appear throughout the audit.
Intent behind the question: Ascertain whether employees follow standard processes frequently as part of their jobs, regardless of whether those processes are documented in a formal, written procedure or not. If there are written procedures or other documents, it is also important to determine whether employees can easily find any documents related to their jobs.
Best response: Employees know where to find the procedures that apply to their jobs, can obtain them quickly, can speak about them, and feel invested in the procedure as well as the process.
What do you do if you find a nonconformance or a potential improvement? The whole concept of continual improvement is paramount to ISO standards, and the auditor will try to assess it over and over. The auditor will ask for at least the basic concepts of continual improvement.
Intent behind the question: Ascertain whether employees understand the concepts of nonconformance, continual improvement, and corrective and preventive actions, and whether they understand the systems that have been put in place to handle them.
Best response: Employees know when to use a nonconformance report and when to use a corrective action or preventive action. They actually have issued some in the past, have been assigned nonconformance reports to dis-position, or have been tasked with conducting root cause analyses for corrective or preventive actions.
What are your responsibilities? This is a broad question and can lead to many answers. Employees may refer to procedures, job descrip-tions, objectives, etc.
Intent behind the question: Ascertain whether employees are aware of their responsibilities and their roles in the overall success of the quality (or environmental, safety, information security) management system.
Best response: Employees know what their responsibilities are and understand their importance to the success of the management system. They know where their responsibilities have been defined and documented, and have agreed to them in writing.
- From “ISO Audit: Five Not-So-Easy Questions”by Miriam Boudreaux in QualityDigest.com
What is your quality (or environmental, safety, information security) policy? This is a basic question and one that is very likely to take center stage during the audit. The focus on this question subsides during periodic audits, primarily because the organization’s management system matures, and the same auditor often assesses one company multiple times.
Intent behind the question: Ascertain whether the organization has done a good enough job communicating the policy to its employees, and that they have internalized the organization’s perspective regarding quality.
Best Response: Employees know where to find the quality policy and are able to articulate in their own words what the policy means to them and how it affects their work, as well as their appreciation and understanding of quality.
What are your objectives? This is a question that applies to everyone, not just managers. It is expected that objectives are represented with data and charts, but not absolutely required. Intent behind the question: Ascertain whether the company has goals it wants to achieve and that it measures and tracks process or product performance, as a whole or individually by department or employee.
Best response: Employees know where to find the quality objectives, and they understand exactly why they have been established and what their purpose is. They know what the desired goal is and how to tell whether it has been achieved. They know how to initiate corrective action when the desired state is not achieved.
Where do you get your procedures from? Procedures or documents in general are an integral part of ISO-compliant management systems; you need them to ensure processes are in control. Therefore, questions regarding documents are definitely going to appear throughout the audit.
Intent behind the question: Ascertain whether employees follow standard processes frequently as part of their jobs, regardless of whether those processes are documented in a formal, written procedure or not. If there are written procedures or other documents, it is also important to determine whether employees can easily find any documents related to their jobs.
Best response: Employees know where to find the procedures that apply to their jobs, can obtain them quickly, can speak about them, and feel invested in the procedure as well as the process.
What do you do if you find a nonconformance or a potential improvement? The whole concept of continual improvement is paramount to ISO standards, and the auditor will try to assess it over and over. The auditor will ask for at least the basic concepts of continual improvement.
Intent behind the question: Ascertain whether employees understand the concepts of nonconformance, continual improvement, and corrective and preventive actions, and whether they understand the systems that have been put in place to handle them.
Best response: Employees know when to use a nonconformance report and when to use a corrective action or preventive action. They actually have issued some in the past, have been assigned nonconformance reports to dis-position, or have been tasked with conducting root cause analyses for corrective or preventive actions.
What are your responsibilities? This is a broad question and can lead to many answers. Employees may refer to procedures, job descrip-tions, objectives, etc.
Intent behind the question: Ascertain whether employees are aware of their responsibilities and their roles in the overall success of the quality (or environmental, safety, information security) management system.
Best response: Employees know what their responsibilities are and understand their importance to the success of the management system. They know where their responsibilities have been defined and documented, and have agreed to them in writing.
- From “ISO Audit: Five Not-So-Easy Questions”by Miriam Boudreaux in QualityDigest.com
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