Internal Auditing in a Software Company

[Marc]

Subject: Re: Internal Auditors /Mewborn/Wermager
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1999 09:03:12 -0600
From: ISO Standards Discussion

From: Denise Wermager - Winnebago.com
Subject: RE: Internal Auditors /Mewborn/Wermager

I am the Quality System Administrator for a Software Company that has approximately 260 employees. Our company has used employees for conducting internal audits since our registration in July 1995. We currently have a Quality Committee consisting of 8 employees, each from different departments. The committee has been divided into two groups for internal auditing purposes. I provide the lead auditor service to both of the teams. About 1 year ago we reorganized our audit schedule to a quarterly schedule and in the recent past we have reorganized it so that we have audits in April and October. We allow 3 days for conducting the audits. The audits consume approximately 5-6 days of time with preparation and follow up.

We realized that it was easier to get a manager's commitment when they were aware of the time their employee would have to dedicate to the committee and internal auditing functions. Also, by creating the two teams, each member is only required to audit once a year and the teams have been created to accomodate the "busy times" for certain departments. For example, our Customer Support representative would be on the team that audits in October because April is a "busy time" for our Customer Support department.

Managers are made aware of the time requirements for the committee when we are seeking representation from a particular department. They are informed with the following time related items:

1) Auditing will consume 5-6 days and your representative would be on the team which would be conducting audits during April or October.

2) Committee meetings occur on a bi-weekly basis and will last no longer than 2 hours.

3) Committee members will be expected to allocate 1 additional day, during the year, for acting as a guide to external auditors either during January or July.

4) Committee members will be expected to allocate 1 additional day, during the year, for opening and closing meetings during the external audits during January and July.

5) Committee members will be expected to allocate 5 additional days for organizing and conducting training sessions for their respective areas and/or possible company-wide training sessions.

6) Any other items that may arise that could consume your employees time will be discussed with you prior to asking your employee for participation.

Denise Wermager -Quality System Administrator

> I am responsible for coordinating the Internal Quality Audit program
> in a 2700 person facility. We are a software development/services
> company.
>
> Currently we are using employees with other full time responsibilities
> to conduct our audits and are having typical difficulties.
>
> I am facing 2 hurdles. Auditors being too busy with their "normal"
> jobs to participate is the first. In addition, because they only
> participate 2 or 3 times a year, they do not build the knowledge
> necessary to become highly effective. I am spending an inordinate
> amount of time preparing, training, hand holding, and following up for
> every audit/auditor.
>
> Does anyone have experience with hiring full-time devoted internal
> quality auditors? I am not looking for a debate on the pros and cons
> - I have been that route already. I am looking for anyone who has put
> people in this position full time.
>
> I would also be interested in any software companies' experiences and
> suggestions with using current employees as auditors.
>
> Thanks in advance for your help.
>
> Shawn Mewborn, CQA /Internal Quality Audit and Doc/Data Control Coordinator

[sbickley]

Hi Shawn,

I am a member of a two person full time internal audit team at a fortune 500 company in Reno, NV. I would welcome discussing with you how this arrangement is currently working out for us (actually quite well) in as much detail as you require.

I am also hoping that I can glean some software auditing and metrics information from you as well, as this is a large portion of our company that is new to the quality system. Please write back or e-mail me at Scott.Bickley@igt.com.

[meensy]

Hi Shawn Mewborn,

" I would also be interested in any software companies' experiences and
suggestions with using current employees as auditors."

We have a similar arrangement in our company. This again is a software company.

Your mail acted as a warning mail to me. We completed certification audit recently and got recommended for certification. During the initial internal audits all our auditors were very much enthusiastic and getting their time and active participation was not a problem for us.

We imparted a two days internal audit training to them which was taken up very rightly by all of them. There are only two members in our QA team now. Total strength however is 200 approx.

But what we have planned is:

1. Rotation (adding new enthu people to the team)
2. Retraining / refreshing training

However, am not sure about the result as this has not happened so far.

Regards,

[stanislavd]

For software company (about 100 employees):
- audit planing 3 mandays
- audit preparation (checklist, etc.) 10 mandays
- documentation review 8 mandays
- interviews - 9 mandays
- documentation and follow up - 25 mandays