Hi,


I would like to ask what is the difference of the audit scope and an audit criteria.

Thank you

Hi Kitty -

From ISO19011:2002 - Guidelines for quality and/or environmental management systems auditing:

3.13 audit scope - extent and boundaries of an audit. NOTE: The audit scope generally includes a description of the physical locations, organizational units, activities and processes, as well as the time period covered.

3.2 audit criteria - set of policies, procedures or requirements. NOTE: Audit criteria are used as a reference against which audit evidence is compared.

So basically the scope is who, what, where, when; and the criteria is what you are auditing against, whether the standard or internal procedures, etc.

To put it in another way. The scope tells you what you are auditing, the criteria is how you compare with to determine conformance.