3 Definitions

Terms, definitions and books related to quality and audits

The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms. Socrates

Some terms and definitions currently used in this module:

Accident: undesired event causing death or health and environmental damages

ABMS: anti-bribery management system

Asset: any element of value for the organization

Audit client: everyone requesting an audit

Audit conclusions: outcome of an audit

Audit criteria: everything against which audit evidence is compared

Audit findings: every deviation from audit criteria

Auditee: everyone who is audited

Auditor: everyone who is trained to conduct audits

Competence: personal skills, knowledge and experiences

Conformity: fulfillment of a specified requirement

Continual improvement: permanent process allowing the improvement of the global performance of the organization

Control: ensure compliance with the specified criteria

Corrective action: action to eliminate the causes of nonconformity or any other undesirable event and to prevent their recurrence

Customer: anyone who receives a product

Document (documented information): any support allowing the treatment of information

Deviation: failure to meet a given threshold

Hazard: situation that could lead to a potential incident

Interested party: person, group or company affected by the impacts from an organization

ISMS: Information security management system

Nonconformity: non-fulfillment of a specified requirement

Organization: a structure that satisfies a need

Product (or service): every result of a process or activity

Quality: aptitude to fulfill requirements

Quality objective: quality related, measurable goal that must be achieved

Problem: the distance that has to be overcome between real and desired situation

Procedure: set of actions to carry out a process

Record: document providing objective evidence of achieved results

Requirement: explicit or implicit need or expectation

Review: survey of a file, product, process so as to verify if pre-set objectives are achieved

Risk: likelihood of occurrence of a threat or an opportunity

Stakeholder: person, group or company that can affect or be affected by an organization

Statement of Applicability (SoA): document describing the objectives and security controls

Supplier (external provider): an entity that provides a product

Top management: group or persons in charge of the organizational control at the highest level

Work environment: set of human and physical factors in which work is carried out

Examples of interested parties: investors, customers, external providers, employees and social, public or political organizations

In the terminology of anti-bribery management systems, do not confuse the following:

anomaly, defect, dysfunction, failure, nonconformity, reject and waste
- an anomaly is a deviation from what is expected
- defect is the non-fulfillment of a requirement related to an intended use
- dysfunction is a degraded function that can lead to a failure
- failure is when a function has become unfit
- nonconformity is the non-fulfillment of a requirement in production
- reject is a nonconforming product that will be destroyed
- waste is when there are added costs but no value
audit and inspect
- to audit is to improve the ABMS
- to inspect is to verify the conformity of a process or product
audit, auditee and auditor
- an audit is a process of evaluating and improving the quality management system
- an auditee is the one who is audited
- an auditor is the one who conducts the audit
audit program and plan
- an audit program is the annual planning of the audits
- an audit plan is the description of the audit activities
communicate and inform
- to communicate is to pass on a message, listen to the reaction and discuss
- to inform is to give someone meaningful data
control and optimization
- control is meeting the objectives
- optimization is the search for the best possible results
customer, external provider and subcontractor
- a customer receives a product
- an external provider provides a product
- a subcontractor provides a service or a product on which a specific work is done
effectiveness and efficiency
- effectiveness is the level of achievement of planned results
- efficiency is the ratio between results and resources
follow-up and review
- follow-up is the verification of the obtained results of an action
- review is the analysis of the effectiveness in achieving objectives
indicator and objective
- an indicator is the information on the difference between the achieved result and the preset objective
- an objective is a sought after commitment
organization and enterprise, society, company
- organization is the term used in the standard ISO 9001 as the entity between the supplier and the customer
- an enterprise, society and company are examples of organizations
organizational chart and process map
- the organizational chart is the graphic display of departments and their links
- the process map is the graphic display of processes and their interaction
procedure, process, product, activity and task
- a procedure is the description of how we should conform to the rules
- a process is how we satisfy the customer using people to achieve the objectives
- a product is the result of a process
- an activity is a set of tasks
- a task is a sequence of simple operations

Remark 1: each time you use the term "improvement opportunity" instead of nonconformity, malfunction or failure, the auditee will gain a little more confidence in you.

Remark 2: the use of ISO 19011 and ISO 37001 definitions is recommended. The most important thing is to determine a common and unequivocal vocabulary for everyone in the company.

Remark 3: the customer can also be the user, the beneficiary, the initiator, the client, the prime contractor, the consumer.
Remark 4: ISO 19011 version 2018 uses the terms procedure ( ), record ( rec ) and documented information together. We also use the terms procedure and record together with the term documented information.

For other definitions, comments, explanations and interpretations that you don’t find in this module and in annex 06, you can consult: explications rec