ISO 9001 Auditing Practices Group

Welcome to the website of the ISO 9001 Auditing Practices Group, ISO 9001 APG. This group was established in 2003 as an on-line source of papers on auditing quality management systems and on the audit process. The ideas, examples and explanations given reflect the process-based approach and risk-based thinking that are essential for auditing the requirements of ISO 9001 Quality management systems - Requirements.

Guidance on these papers is not definitive. They reflect different views in QMS auditing, which are influenced by different audit contexts and circumstances of the time when they were developed. As such, their content may not always be consistent. The guidance in the papers is not intended to be used as specified requirements, an industry benchmark, or as criteria that all QMS auditors, consultants or practitioners have to follow.

The ISO 9001 APG is constituted as an informal group of quality management system experts, auditors and practitioners, drawn from the ISO Technical Committee 176 Quality Management and Quality Assurance (ISO/TC 176), and the International Accreditation Forum (IAF). A sister web page for the Accreditation Assessments Practices Group has been established to provide guidance to accreditation assessors.

The group is co- convened by Ms. Joana dos Guimarães Sá (IPQ, Portugal) on ISO 9001 APG, and Mr. Fei Yang (Deputy Director, CNAS, China) on AAPG.

Feedback from users is welcomed and is used by the group to determine whether additional guidance documents should be developed, or if these current ones should be revised. Feedback and any enquiries shall be sent to ISO 9001 APG secretary Mr. Herick Lopez, contact details in this website.

For further information on ISO 9001 APG papers, please see: An introduction to the ISO 9001 Auditing Practices Group

QMS auditing topics for ISO 9001:2015

Disclaimer

The contributions on this website have not been subject to an endorsement process by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), ISO Technical Committee 176 or the International Accreditation Forum (IAF).

The information contained on this website is available to the public for educational and communication purposes and the ISO 9001 Auditing Practice Group does not take responsibility for any errors, omissions or other liabilities that may arise from the provision or subsequent use of such information.

Copyright

Therefore and unless otherwise specified, no part of these ISO / IAF publications may be reproduced or utilized (including reproduction in whole or in part to another Internet site), in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilm, scanning, etc., without permission in writing from the publishers.

What's New

19 March 2024

APG paper on ISO's climate change amendments has been released to support and guide third-, second- and first- party auditors on the potential effects of such amendments when auditing ISO 9001. It is important to note that the intent of the affected clauses (4.1 & 4.2) remains unchanged, however this paper conveys a number of considerations to the auditing community. Many organizations will find valuable insights in this paper regarding the released amendment.

26 November 2023

APG paper on Scope and applicability has been revised to incorporate clarifications and new examples, resulting from multiple enquiries and recommendations received, as well as translation issues. As of 12-01-2023, the document was adjusted to address a text error reported by a reader. APG thanks all those readers who have contacted us and that helped us improve this paper.

23 February 2023

20th Anniversary of ISO 9001 Auditing Practices Group
This year we will celebrate the 20th Anniversary of ISO 9001 Auditing Practices Group who had its first meeting on February 23, 2003, with the aim to provide informational support to QMS auditors, consultants and quality practitioners. His members are recognized ISO/TC 176 audit experts from around the world, as well as nominated experts from IAF and ISO/CASCO, working on a volunteer basis.

The group was established along with the Accreditation Auditing Practices Group (AAPG). During its work, more than 50 papers have been published containing useful explanations regarding almost all aspects of the audit of quality management systems. These documents have been well received by the professional community. Today the APG team, a blend of founding members and newer participants is confidently looking forward, gathering global information on new needs and challenges, developing papers dedicated to the use of digital technologies, looking at other modern approaches to the audit process, while at the same time updating the existing papers for their continued relevance. This year we want to know more about these initial times, learn with the people that wrote the papers and have their views about the present and future challenges of auditing.

Translations

Translations of some of the APG's papers can be found at:

Czech/čeština

Portuguese/Português

Japanese/日本語

Spanish/Español
( ver: Documentos Información Pública)

Herick Lopez

Secretary to the ISO 9001 Auditing Practices Group