Zone 1:

Characteristics: LOW MATURITY of “quality culture”; I M MATURE QMS, not conforming to ISO
9001.

Expectation: organization would like to receive advice on how to implement QMS and/or resolve any
ncf. raised.

Auditor behaviour: in a 3 rd party audit such advice would generate a c onflict of interest and would
contravene req’s in ISO/IEC 17021-1. What the auditor can do is to ensure that whenever a ncf. are
encountered, auditee has a clear understanding of what standard requires and why ncf. is being raised - if
organization can recognize that resolving these ncf. will lead to improved performance, then it is more likely
to believe in and commit to the certification process. It is important, however, that all identified ncf. to be
reported, so that organization clearly understands what needs to be done in order to meet req’s of standard.

NOTE: while some organizations might not be totally satisfied with an audit outcome that does not result
in certification, organization’s customers will certainly consider this to have been a “valuable” audit from their
perspective. From the perspective of CB, failing to report all detected ncf. and/or providing guidance on
how to implement QMS adds no value to the credibility of auditing profession or certification process.