ISO 19011 - Section 10
Explanations in Plain English
ISO 19011 - Section 10 - Auditing Techniques
ISO 19011 Outlines The Following Auditing Techniques:
* Observation of evidence and operations
* Interviewing auditee personnel
* Verifying the audit finding, and
* Recording the findings and nonconformances
* Tell me/show me:
The last technique in the list is one of the most effective in
conducting audits. The auditor simply requests the auditee to explain or walk him/her through the activity or
operation being audited.
ISO 19011 points out that questions need to be open-ended and precise. Open-ended
questions are seen as less adversarial than closed-ended questions such as: “Why do you do the job this way?” or
worse “Is this the way you suppose to be doing this job?”
The better audit question is:
Tell me how you conduct this operation.
Tell me how you make sure that this operation is effective.
Tell me what the inputs to the process are.
Tell me what the process outputs are.
Tell me how the outputs link to other operations/processes.
Tell me what the objectives of the operation are.
In addition, to closed-ended questions being somewhat adversarial, they don't
include the opportunity for the interviewee to answer beyond yes or no. Therefore, they don't inherently contain
the opportunity for the auditor to learn anything about the operation except yes or no.
It's also common for companies to have instructed their people to "answer the
auditor's question and then shut up". So, when you ask a closed-ended question don't be surprised if you get a
closed-ended answer.
The next step is to compare the information gathered with procedures,
instructions, standards, forms, checklists, computer system entries, and/or actual operation. Examples of auditing
questions are:
Show me the workmanship standard or procedure you use for this job.
Show me how you monitor/measure the operation.
Show me how your objectives/requirements are defined.
The next step is to verify the processes are operated consistently by looking at
objective evidence of compliance such as records, employee knowledge, compliant product handling.
The links below are
excerpts from the our e-book
"Explanations and
Definitions for ISO 19011:2002" 
Section 1. ISO 19011 Scope
reference and definitions
Section 2. ISO 19011 Principles of
auditing
Section 3. ISO 19011 Managing an
audit program
Section 4. ISO 19011 Audit program
implementation
Section 5. ISO 19011 Audit
activities
Section 6. ISO 19011 Preparing for
onsite activities
Section 7. ISO 19011 Conducting
onsite activities
Section 8. ISO 19011 What the
auditor is looking for
Section 9 ISO 19011 Audit
reporting
Section 10. ISO 19011 Audit
techniques
Section 11. ISO 19011 Audit
path
Section 12. ISO 19011 Effective
communications
Section 13. ISO 19011
Sampling
Section 14. ISO 19011 Audit
completion and follow-up
Section 15. ISO 19011 Competence
and evaluation of auditors
This represents a summary of the section in ISO 19011:2002. It's
suggested that you obtain a copy of our ebook to refer to when auditing.
EBook "Explanations and Definitions for ISO 19011:2002
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