Re: Root Cause Analysis: Responsibility of an Auditor or an Auditee?
Yes, it is a good question.
Andy, I agree that an internal auditor (I assume that's what you mean by auditor, dqA? couldn't work on it during the audit, but the question was about after the closing meeting, ie, after the audit.
In which case I think an internal auditor might be part of such a group, and their presence might be useful. But only as an extra resource/other set of eyes: it is very definitely
not their responsibility to find root cause.
I would beware any thing that might suggest that or blur the lines of what audit is and is not. Apart from other issues, you can and probably will get the department/team/area manager's nose seriously out of joint (not surprisingly) if an auditor not only comes in & audits and then reports on their findings but also
thendiagnoses why the problems exist. It's the manager's job to investigate and rectify, not the auditor's. The auditor can't possibly know as much about it as the manager (or shouldn't!)