Importance of allocating sufficient planning time for an ISO audit

As all experienced auditors are aware, for ISO audits – internal, second-party or third-party – it is important to set aside sufficient preparation time for the audit to be effective and of value.

The stages for audits are broken down into four phases:

1. Planning.
2. Conducting the audit.
3. Reporting.
4. Follow-up.

ISO 19011:2018 – Guidelines for auditing management systems advises on the determination of time required, as does IAF MD 5:2019. The latter document, entitled ‘Determination of audit time of quality, environmental, and occupation health and safety management systems’, states that a third of the time spent on an audit should be allocated to planning.

If the auditor does not allow enough time for each phase of the assessment, the likelihood is that the audit will not be completed effectively.

Audit time poll

At Aligned Certification we recently ran a straw poll on LinkedIn to hear the views of quality professionals. We posed the question: ‘When tasked with carrying out an internal ISO Management System audit, what proportion of time should be spent on planning the audit?’.

The results from the 20 people who responded were as follows:

• 10% of the audit time – 65%
• 25% of the audit time – 10%
• 40% of the audit time – 20%
• Less than 25% of audit time – 5%

"If auditors simply turn up on the day without completing the appropriate preparation, they are setting themselves up to fail."

Tony Brachmanski CQP MCQI, Managing Director at Aligned Certification

‘Fail to prepare, prepare to fail’

The poll makes interesting reading, with the highest percentage of voters, 65%, stating that they would allocate 10% of the audit time.

This reminded me of my lead auditor ISO training where a key element focused on the importance the planning stage of any audit plays in the success of Phase 2 of the process – conducting the assessment. If auditors simply turn up on the day without completing the appropriate preparation, they are setting themselves up to fail. As the saying goes: ‘Fail to prepare, prepare to fail’.

It is an excellent phrase for reinforcing what is required to attain any objective. That is, by neglecting to prepare, you set yourself up to fail; or by failing to prepare, you create a circumstance in which you are likely to fail.

Benjamin Franklin, a founding father of the United States, is the original source of the phrase, when he wrote about how important it was to be prepared in order to succeed. He also said that if you don't prepare, you are giving up hope on doing well.

The saying reminds me of when I was around 10 years old; my mum always sent me to the local fish and chip shop on a Friday evening to collect a meal for our large family. The order was always lengthy and included many different items. Without the written shopping list that my mum gave me to hand to the person making up the order, there is absolutely no doubt someone in the family would have gone hungry.

This again reinforces the importance of – like my mum – writing a list of everything required to ensure a successful audit. Failure to do so will undoubtedly lead to things being not being done or else missed entirely. This in turn will make the audit process inefficient – with possibly costly circumstances.

Effective planning

Planning time needed for an audit can vary depending on the size and complexity of organisations, but it is essential that sufficient allocation is made to include a significant amount of research. Proper planning will make the actual assessment effective for both the customer and the certification body.

This can include – although this list is, of course, in no way exhaustive:

• confirming the scope and assessment standard/criteria;
• communicating with the auditee to agree arrangements for the audit, including date, timings, and ascertaining any sensitive issues of which the auditors should be aware;
• reviewing previous assessment reports (if available) to identify results of previous audits and any nonconformities raised;
• producing an audit plan for the assessment, to be issued to the auditee;
• creation of checklists;
• team briefings with personnel/team members;
• organising customer site visits;
• arranging hotel accommodation.

To summarise: based on the number of time-consuming tasks, listed above, there is a significant amount of preparation work an auditor should do to prepare for each assessment.

From my experience as an ISO auditor, I believe there needs to be at least 20% proportion of the whole audit time allocated to planning, to make sure an auditor is appropriately prepared to conduct the audit. Failure to do so will lead to the process being ineffective.