Nigel H Croft
Chair, ISO/TMB/JTCG (Joint Technical Coordination Group for Management System Standards)

The story of the ISO 9001 Auditing Practices Group (APG) can be traced back to an impromptu meeting I had with Joe Dunbeck (ex-President of what was then the Registrar Accreditation Board; now the ANSI National Accreditation Board) back in 2001. I had shown up unannounced at his office in Milwaukee after a meeting with the ASQ (American Society for Quality), and our “short chat over coffee” extended for over 3 hours! At the time I was leading the task group of the International Organization for Standardization’s Technical Committee 176 (ISO/TC 176) responsible for ensuring a smooth transition to ISO 9001:2000 Quality management systems — Requirements, and there were concerns about how auditors and the certification community in general (including accreditation bodies) were adapting to the “process approach” to quality management that had only recently been introduced.

“Why don’t we get everyone together and have a ‘spiritual retreat’ somewhere, where we can take a multi-stakeholder approach to look at potential threats to the credibility of ISO 9001 certification?” I remember saying. Lo and behold, a few months later, Joe (with a lot of support from ASQ and IAF) had set it all up, and this informal workshop was held in Denver, Colorado in May 2002 during the weekend interlude between the ASQ Annual Conference and the IAF TC meeting the following week in the same location.

This informal brainstorming event eventually led to the formation of the “ISO 9000 Advisory Group” (IAG), an inter-organizational group including ISO/TC 176, IAF, ISO’s committee on conformity assessment (CASCO), ISO’s committee on consumer policy (COPOLCO) and what is now IPC (International Personnel Certification), with a remit primarily to look at factors affecting the credibility of ISO 9001 certification. In the following years, that group was prolific in stimulating initiatives such as the initial project to develop ISO/IEC 17021; the inclusion in the ISO/IAF Strategic Action Plan of the concepts that “Output Matters!” and “Remember the client’s CUSTOMERS” (aimed at certification bodies). At least two of the associated publications (“Expected Outcomes of Accreditation to ISO 9001” and “ISO 9001 – What does it mean in the Supply Chain”) are still relevant and available (with some modifications) even today! See here and here.

Plus, of course the idea of forming a group to provide examples of “Good Auditing Practices” that could be rapidly disseminated among the third-party auditing community came out of the IAG. Sadly, the IAG was disbanded in 2012, but its legacy continues via the ISO/TC176 “Brand Integrity” group and the IAF TC Management Systems Working Group.

As we might expect, there were some initial negative reactions from the usual “naysayers” about the concept of the APG – “Who says these are GOOD Practices??” “What will the formal consensus-building and approval process be??” “We have to make it clear that these are not requirements!” “These can’t be seen as being formally endorsed by IAF or ISO!” and so on. These hurdles were overcome, however, by naming the group the “Auditing Practices Group” (taking out the reference to “GOOD”) and including a disclaimer that the APG “is constituted as an informal group of quality management system (QMS) experts, auditors and practitioners, drawn from ISO/TC 176 and the IAF”, a phrase which is still on the APG site today.

Now, 20 years later, all of those who have been involved in the work of the APG can look back with pride at the global recognition and praise they have received by providing short, practical guidance to the auditing community on how to address such “thorny” issues as “How to audit top management?”, “How to add value during an audit?”, “How to add value without overstepping the mark and providing consultancy?”, “How to deal with consultants during an audit” and many more. Special mentions must go to Alex Ezrakhovich and Randy Dougherty (the original co-conveners of the APG) and to Charles Corrie (recently retired from the British Standards Institution) for his outstanding secretarial support for the group. The “ISO 9001 APG”, as it is now called, continues to thrive under the capable leadership of Joana dos Guimarães Sá (ISO/TC 176) and Fei Yang (IAF). We also now have similar groups aimed at other management system standards such as ISO 14001 and ISO 45001, as well as the Accreditation Auditing Practices Group aimed at accreditation assessors.

All of this from a simple “coffee and chat” over 20 years ago!! I wish the group well and am confident that it will still be relevant (and needed) 20 years from now.

The guidance is available free of charge from the APG website.