What is management systems consultancy?
ISO/IEC 17021 defines management systems consultancy as participation in designing, implementing or maintaining a management system. Examples are: a. preparing or producing manuals or procedures, and b. giving specific advice, instructions or solutions towards the development and implementation of a management system. Arranging training and participating as a trainer is not considered consultancy, provided that, where the course relates to management systems or auditing, it is confined to the provision of generic information that is freely available in the public domain; i.e. the trainer should not provide company-specific solutions. Why is it important that an external auditor not cross the line from auditing to consulting? A significant amount of the value of an accredited certificate comes from the knowledge that it is based on an audit that has been conducted by an impartial and competent auditor. Individuals and firms may rely on that certificate when making decisions about the or
