The auditor must gain information from the auditee in order to understand the process; and evaluate the comparisons both correctly and thoroughly. Questions which obtain information are termed "open" questions, and normally start:
If further information is required to provide an effective understanding of the process, we must ask further open questions, until we have enough information to evaluate the comparisons, or confirm that a difference exists. "Why" has been placed at the foot of the list as in may not be the best start to a question. The auditee may feel that criticism is intended, e.g. Why did you do that?. It will normally be better to phrase the question: "What was the reason for doing that?"
Another highly effective form of open question is the statement, e.g. "This form is pink, however the procedure states that it should be yellow". Although this is not formally a question, it will be received as an open question by the auditee, and normally generate a descriptive answer.
Obviously, if we continued asking "open" questions, and receiving descriptive answers, we would never finish discussing the specific subject. Agreement is confirmed by the "Closed" question, i.e. one which demands a Yes or No answer, e.g. "So you agree that this form (number 16548) is pink, whereas Procedure 6.4 states that it should be yellow?"
This agreement allows the auditor to complete evaluation of an activity, and move on to the next one, thereby achieving an effective use of time.
| Last modified | February 2006 |
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