With the trend towards Remote Audits during the current Covid-19 pandemic, new guidance has been published for the benefit of the Auditing community.
Previous articles have covered: What is Remote Auditing? & What equipment is needed for Remote Auditing?, which have provided the foundation for Remote Auditing. So, it is good to see that guidance is being developed by ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and IAF (International Accreditation Forum) to support Remote Auditing.
The guidance is published through the ISO 9001 Auditing Practices Group, which is constituted as an informal group of quality management system (QMS) experts, auditors and practitioners, drawn from the ISO Technical Committee 176 Quality Management and Quality Assurance (ISO/TC 176) and the International Accreditation Forum (IAF).
It should be noted that the papers and presentations that make up the output from the ISO 9001 Auditing Practices Group are not definitive. They reflect a number of different views in QMS auditing. As such, their content may not always be consistent. It is not intended that the website’s content will be used as specified requirements, an industry benchmark, or as criteria that all QMS auditors, consultants or practitioners have to follow.
The guidance provides useful links to ISO 19011:2018, which is the ISO Guidance Standard on auditing, & IAF IAF MD 4:2018 covering the use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) for auditing.
It contains guidance on considerations for an audit program using remote auditing techniques, Confidentiality, Security and Data Protection (CSDP), ensuring that the risks for achieving the audit objectives are identified, assessed and managed & the steps for the whole audit lifecycle. There is a specific section on the use of ICT for the third-party audit cycle, such as ISO 14001 audits conducted by Certification Bodies.
A copy of the ISO / IAF Auditing Practices Group Guidance on Remote Audits published can be downloaded here
| ACTION POINTS 1. Review the content of the guidance on Remote Auditing. 2. Consider the relevant issues for your Remote Auditing 3. Take appropriate actions for your Remote Audit and review its success. |
#RemoteAudit, #RemoteAuditing #ISO14001