Section 11 - ISO 19011

Audit Path - Section 11 - ISO 19011

The audit path is the sequence of activities or personnel to be audited. A smart selection of the audit path is critical to a successful audit and should be conducted using a description of the interaction between the processes of the QMS.

The important factors for this selection are:

Audit scope: the activities in the audit path have to be within the audit scope and need to ensure full coverage of all areas and operations to be audited.

Availability of the auditee: the auditee needs to be available and auditable at the scheduled time.

Activity/process flow: the sequence of activities to be audited should be based on a description of the interaction between the processes and the QMS. This will ensure effective auditing of various processes, enable a better comprehension by the auditor and facilitate the communications between auditor and auditee.

For audits requiring more than one auditor the audit schedule will need to reflect multiple audit paths. Each auditor will have his/her own set of activities and processes to audit with a specific path. The different paths can overlap in the areas where the activity requires more than one auditor to achieve a proper sampling within the given timeframe.

The paths should also be selected according to auditor expertise. For example, an auditor with a strong engineering background should focus on the engineering processes such as process and product design, floor plan layout and workflow.

At a predetermined time during the audit, the auditors need to meet and exchange information and notes based on observations made in their specific audit path. This is necessary to evaluate the level of nonconformities, if any.

If all the auditors found the same type of nonconformity in their audit paths, it will indicate the nonconformity is systemic and is therefore major. They also need to coordinate audit activities for interacting processes, by exchanging information on the outputs of processes that may be inputs for other processes. 

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 an copy of "ISO 19011 Explanations and Definitions".