Audit Follow Up Process

Objectives

The objective of audit follow up is to verify that all the non-conformances and observations have been analyzed and appropriate corrective/preventive actions have been taken.

Process Entry/Exit Criteria

Process Inputs/Outputs

Tasks

1. The lead auditor plans the audit follow-up after corrective/preventive action completion date and communicates the follow-up schedule to auditees and Quality Assurance Manager (for project-level audits) or Process Engineering Lead (for organization level audits)
2. Auditors conduct the follow-up meeting as per the follow-up date.
3. Auditee presents the output of relevant corrective or preventive action against the non-conformance(s) in the follow-up meeting.
4. Auditor verifies the implementation of corrective or preventive actions against their planning.
5. After successful implementation, Auditor provides the verification and closing remarks in the Corrective and Preventive Action Requests.
6. Auditor communicates the updated audit records and follow-up status to the Auditees and Quality Assurance Manager (for project-level audits) or Process Engineering Lead (for Organization level audits).
7. Auditee stores the audit records in the project repository under configuration management system (e.g. VSS).
8. If corrective or preventive action is not completed within completion date, either totally or partially, or corrective actions taken are not effective and may lead to recurrence of same or similar issues, auditor escalates the issue to the relevant stakeholders to identify reasons for not fulfilling the commitment. If the issue cannot be resolved at this level, it may be referred to the Software Engineering Process Group.

Guidelines for Follow-up Audit

Follow up audit may be scheduled in multiple sessions. If a non-conformances number is low and their span of resolution time is same or near about, follow up can be done in one single follow up a meeting. On the other hand, if the non-conformances number is high or there is significant variation in their resolution time, then multiple follow up meetings may be scheduled.