It is important when reading this book, to remember that it aims to serve as a guide to the reader who is:
The major differences are that if an audit is conducted internally, familiarity with the information and knowledge about the Auditees reduces the introductory formality, and certain formalities are minimized.
First Party Audit is for organizations auditing themselves for internal purposes. This audit need not only be conducted in-house as it can also be carried out by an external organization.
Second Party Audit is an external audit that is usually performed by the customers or by any other party on the organization’s behalf. It can also be done by any external party that has an interest in the "Auditee" organization.
Third-Party Audit is performed by independent external organizations to determine whether or not an organization complies with the standard. Third-Party Auditors are commonly referred to as registrars or certification bodies.
In this book, this type of audit, called Certification Audit, will be introduced. It entails auditing an organization before the organization embarks on a BCM certification audit. The Auditors, led by a Lead Auditor, will inspect and certify the organization against a BCM standard.
The content of this book also provides and show the application of the principles and methodologies for reviewing and auditing a BC Plan. Based on my practical experience as both as an Auditor (public accounting firm) and Reviewer (internal and external BCM Consultant within organizations) of BC Plans and BCM programs,
I have prepared and included a series of easy-to-use BCM Questionnaires which can be easily tailored to be used as Standardized Audit Programs. This is to assist persons without prior audit experience in BCM to perform audits of specific business units’ and corporate-wide BC Plans or BCM programs.
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