Abstract

Auditing an organization for compliance with ISO standards has two parts: conformance audits and performance audits. Conformance audits check that organizations have processes and documentation that follow the standard to the letter. Performance audits focus on checking if the quality management system is reaching the right goals and achieving the right results. Some performance audits can be done separate from conformance audits, though many audits combine both, checking for standard compliance and positive results. Stage one of these combined audits usually consists of checking documentation, and step 2 is conducting the actual audit on the performance of certain systems or processes.