ABSTRACT
The International Standards Organisation (ISO) has defined a quality audit as follows:
QUALITY AUDIT
A systematic and independent examination to determine whether quality activities and related results comply with planned arrangements, and whether these arrangements are implemented effectively and are suitable to achieve objectives (ISO 8402: 1986, Quality Vocabulary)
In addition to its appearance in the ISO Quality Vocabulary, this definition is also repeated in a number of other ISO documents, e.g., the ISO 9000 series. It is all rather vague, not to say “woolly,” and makes no mention of the crucial issue of what is to be done as follow-up to the audit.
