Internal Auditor Qualifications - What qualifications should I include?

S

sweetmeg

Hi guys,

My boss wants me to include auditors qualification (for internal auditors in our organization) in the Internal Quality Audit Procedure (IQA).Can you give me an idea what parameters can I include? I consider the education, work experience(should I include this?), Audit experience….auditors training qualification criteria(what does this comprise?)
How will I include this in the procedure?? I am planning to make it as an attachment in the procedure and generate a simple matrix (any example from you guys??)

Lastly, I am planning also to include auditor’s effectiveness(part of evaluating auditor’s) here, I needed to generate an evaluation form, again asking for your help what will be the content of this form.

Thanks in advance..

All advises you’ve shared to me really helps me lot.

Thank you guys.. :thanx:
meg :)
 

Jen Kirley

Quality and Auditing Expert
Leader
Admin
Parameters range from on-the-job experience to an internal trainig course, to a contracted training course and also to certification such as with ASQ. There might also be some shadowing to ensure the interpersonal methods are appropriate and the planning/execution phases are followed through as the organization has planned out.

So there you have it: training and performance evaluation by a superior.

I like matrices because they give a lot of information, including what is missing as well as what is accomplished. A quaity manual can point to a training document that lists such matrices or they can perhaps simply be used to show training has been accomplished and not called out specifically. Wherever possible, I would avoid making anything that has to be kept updated and formally revised.

As well as the other questions--does anyone here have an auditor's evaluation form?
 
S

sweetmeg

Hi Jennifer

Thanks for the inputs..


A follow up regarding auditor’s qualification...(reference to section 8.2.2.2 of ISO/TS manual)

I considered drafting a flow for auditor’s qualification and effectiveness.

Start of Flow is the selection of Propose auditor’s which is appointed by department managers of each section here.
Some of the proposed auditors have no auditing experience yet… Is that okay? What qualification criteria can I add in?
Some auditors have auditing experience of QS 9000 and ISO 14001.(I think there will be no problem with that).


One of the reasons why I planned to include internal auditors qualification on the procedure because during our internal quality audit this is one of the observation of the auditor.
First, the auditor asked “who are the qualified internal auditors?” we gave her the list of auditors who attended the ISO/TS awareness and Internal audit course. But she made a comment that was not enough to claim that list of auditors were qualified.
Then she’s looking for an auditors qualification and effectiveness process which in our part cannot show her.

Going back to draft flow..after selection of propose auditor what will be the next flow?? Is it training??
How can I ensure that all internal auditors are competent to audit ISO/TS requirements?

Hoping for your advise…

thanks
 
S

sweetmeg

Hi antoine,

Thanks a lot!
This will be useful as my baseline...

regards,
sweetmeg
 
J

Jipsy

Hi to all!

I would like to ask your help regarding the qualifications of Internal Auditors. Currently, I am now revising our Internal Audit procedure to include the Auditors Qualification. What i did was, i made a draft of the Internal Auditors Qualification /Evaluation Guidelines. To test the competentcy of our Internal Auditors I would like to make an examination for them like a case study where in they will do the analysis based on the requirements of TS 16949...Does anyone of you have a sample of a case study which I can be used as reference?

Tnx
Jipsy:)
 

Stijloor

Leader
Super Moderator
Hello Jipsy,

Welcome to The Cove Forums! :bigwave: :bigwave:

The best way to determine competency (which is defined as "the ability to apply knowledge and skills") is to have your Internal Auditors perform an actual (mini) audit that you observe. Folks that look good on paper (paper and pencil tests), do not always perform well in real action.

I use the following example during my internal audit training courses: "I can explain to you how to swim, and I can have you do a test on how to swim, but unless I throw you in a pool, you and I will never know."

By the way, you've mentioned ISO/TS 16949:2002. Yes that's OK, but you know what? It's more important that your Internal Auditors understand the internal process requirements.

Happy New Year!

Stijloor.
 

AndyN

Moved On
Since the issue of competency has correctly been identified, we must not only focus on the technical qualifications of auditor candidates, but some of the other characteristics which will help them be effective:-
Interpersonal skills, credibility, management 'potential', reading, writing, comprehension skills etc......
 
D

Duke Okes

If you're working to only ISO 9001 you can develop your own qualification criteria, as along as you show that it work effectively.

If you're working to ISO/TS 16949, check the Customer-Specific Requirements of each of your customers, as some of them are pretty specific as to what criteria should be used.
 

Randy

Super Moderator
What never ceases to amaze me is the lack of understanding and use of ISO 19011:2002. The nice attachment made available to us is nothing more than a portion of what 19011 recommends.

Nowhere in the discussion and the attachment have I seen the full definition of an auditor met...

ISO 9000:2005 3.9.9 auditor
person with the demonstrated personal attributes and competence (3.1.6 and 3.9.14) to conduct an audit (3.9.1)
NOTE The relevant personal attributes for an auditor are described in ISO 19011.



What's really funny is that ISO 19011:2002 has a Table named "Table 3 - Application of the evaluation process for an auditor in a hypothetical internal audit program". The Table covers "Areas of Competence, Personal attributes, and knowledge and skills, Evaluation criteria, Evaluation methods".

Chapter or Section 7 does nothing but talk about "Competence and evaluation of auditors"

Of course ISO 19011 isn't perfect, but then again it uses "should" and not "shall".

Wanna know a secret? The definitions are applicable during an audit. So if you can't show where your auditors meet the definition of one, you're less than correct.

In answer to your possible question of "Have you written....?", my answer is "You betcha"

You must do what "you" need to do in order to provide the "evidence" that "your" auditors meet the definition of a competent auditor.

I made a slight eror....Stijloor mentioned competent
 
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