The primary purpose of an audit in a mature management system is to confirm that the system is in conformance.
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False. The primary purpose of an audit in a mature system is to confirm performance, not conformance (we explain what this means exactly in the free white paper).
The highest form of internal auditing should basically be confirming an organization is "saying what it does and doing what it says."
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False. Actually in a mature management system an internal audit that focuses on making sure a process “does what it says” in the documentation is nearly worthless. You already know if the process is being followed. After all, how many times has it been audited already? The real question that the auditors need to answer is whether the process is effective at achieving the desired result. That is a whole different kind of audit.
Registrars expect an organization’s internal audit program to be more in-depth than their own surveillance audits?
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True. While all audits are only samplings of the actual system being audited, registrars recognize that their certification audits are in reality a very light sample. They are counting on the fact that the organization is taking a deeper dive into the system with their internal audit program.
But be aware, not everyone is cut out to be an internal auditor. You can train someone until the cows come home but if they are not prone to doing audits it won’t help. Auditing is a little like swimming; you can learn enough to keep from drowning, but it is unlikely that you will be competing with Michael Phelps. Even someone who is prone to auditing will take quite awhile to develop the skill to do it successfully. Unfortunately what many organizations find is that just about the time someone becomes proficient at swimming they get out of the pool; their job changes or they get so busy that they can’t audit anymore.
Are your auditors sufficiently proficient to dive deeper than your registration audits?
All audit findings are equal.
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False. We are not only talking about major and minor findings -- There are also righteous findings and BS findings. No system is perfect. Any auditor worth his or her salt can go out and find something to write up. That is not the object. Nor is the object to write up frivolous or useless findings; those hurt the internal audit system and bog down the corrective action system. What auditors need to recognize is not every typo or misfiled paper is a finding, at most it might be an audit trail to see if this is a system issue.
A truly good, effective internal audit program for a mature management system ensures that the auditors are looking to see that the system is effective in not only meeting the standard, your procedures, and customer special requirements, but also the audits need to cover all those topics. The key word is effective. Is the system operating effectively to accomplish your objectives? (Our white paper discusses this in more depth)
Internal auditing is harder than performing certification audits.
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True. Certification auditors don’t have to live and work with the folks their auditing. Frankly they don’t care if your people get offended or if there are hard feelings; when the audit is over they are leaving. Conversely, your own internal auditors soon will take their auditor hats off and then they need to be able to work with the same folks they were just auditing. We have learned the same thing. We have selected our professional staff not just on education, training, and experience but above all they have to be the kind of people you would like to have around.
Auditing can be an enjoyable experience for both the auditor and the auditee.
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True. If approached properly people love to talk about themselves, particularly if they feel they are in a safe environment. In reality an audit should be a confirmation of a job well done and a good auditor is quick with sincere compliments. It is critical that auditors are masters at relaxing those being audited. The idea is not to look under every rock and leaf for something wrong, but to assess how well the process is working. People love to have their work and their performance affirmed; an audit is an excellent time for that to take place.
As this quiz reveals, there are a lot of misconceptions about internal auditing. For this reason, we've written a whitepaper to reveal even more and help show you how internal audits can actually help instead of frustrate you. Close this window, choose Option 1 and download our free whitepaper to get a down-to-earth perspective on how internal auditing can be done without the hassle.
