Secondly, to address the
"Performance Status" of the process, I use the data in my
"Metrics DASHBOARD". It's a Metrics Database which I created, wherein each of the metrics in the company is linked to one of the 12 Key Processes. The metric's performance is assessed, at least monthly, and a performance "Status" is assigned, based on 3 factors:
1) Current Period Performance against Plan (or objective)
2) Year-to-Date Trend Performance
3) Projected Trend Performance for the next 4 months
Based on company "Status" definitions of
"Favorable" (Green),
"Unfavorable" (Red) or
"Needs Improvement" (Yellow), each metric is assigned a "Status". The respective metrics for each of the 12 Key Processes are then averaged together to give an overall "Performance Status" for that process. At the end of a 12 month cycle, the Process Performance is calculated for the past 12 month period, and a numerical value is associated with it for calculation purposes.
Since the standard expects you to consider "
process status" as one of the factors to assess in setting your Audit Schedule, this was the best way I could see of doing that...and substantiating it mathematically...Most companies don't do it, and most Auditors don't ask how the Audit Plan was derived...and if they did, they would soon discover that, while some companies have a "
partially justified rationale" for performing their audit...they will rarely find that
all required criteria have been factored in.