What is ISO 19011?
Guidelines for Quality or Environmental Management Systems Auditing
ISO 19011:2018 (Guidelines for auditing management systems), was published in July 2018 in response to demand for guidance on combined management system audits. It offers comprehensive guidelines for quality and/or environmental management systems audit. The objective is that by using this document, organizations can save effort, time, effort and expenditure by:
- Avoiding confusion over the objectives of the environmental or quality audit program.
- Ensuring audit reports follow the best format and contain all the relevant information.
- Securing agreement of the goals for individual audits within an audit program.
- Evaluating the competence of members of an audit team against appropriate criteria.
- Reducing duplication of effort when conducting combined environmental/quality audits.
ISO 19011 was designed so organizations can efficiently perform audits using these guidelines. Within one single standard there are now four critical decision/support resources for the efficient planning, conduct and evaluation of quality and environmental audits:
- A clear explanation of the principles of management systems auditing.
- Advice on the competence and evaluation of auditors.
- Guidance on the management of audit programs.
- Guidance on the conduct of internal or external audits.
It is a set of principles that will help anyone perform an audit effectively because it focuses on the underlying processes of audit management. It could be used when auditing any management system.