Accreditation Assessment Practices Group (AAPG)
The Accreditation Assessment Practices Group (AAPG) is an informal group of accreditation experts, assessors, auditors and practitioners, drawn from the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), particularly ISO’s Policy Committee for Conformity Assessment (ISO/CASCO) and some of its Technical Committees e.g. ISO/TC 176 and ISO/TC 207. It was established following the success of the ISO 9001 Auditing Practices Group (APG), and following a request from the IAF’s Technical Committee.
The AAPG has prepared a number of papers and presentations on accreditation assessment practices, against the International Standards and Guides produced by ISO/CASCO. These papers can be found below.
This page is primarily aimed at accreditation bodies and their assessors, as well as certification/registration bodies and their auditors.
The ideas, examples and explanations given reflect the process-based approach that is essential for the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies (CABs) that are themselves applying such an approach in the certification of organisations to e.g. ISO 9001:2015 Quality management systems – Requirements. The papers and presentations that make up the content of this website are not definitive. They reflect a number of different views in accreditation assessments. As such, their content may not always be consistent. It is not intended that the website’s content will be used as specified requirements, an industry benchmark, or as criteria that all accreditation bodies, accreditation auditors, or practitioners have to follow.
General
- Introduction to the Accreditation Assessment Practices Group
- The witnessing of CAB audits by an Accreditation Body
- “Process Approach” based accreditation assessments
- Assessor Code of Conduct and Ethics
- Criteria for Competence of AB Assessors and Assessment Teams
- Assessing Accreditation Scopes
- Assessing a CAB’s Conformity to ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015, Clause 5.2.3
- Assessing Certification Body management systems based on ISO 9001 (Option B from Clause 10 of ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015)
- Deployment of the Expected Outcomes Documents
- Control of CABs’ foreign or remote locations
- The conduct of integrated assessments of a CAB operating more than one MS certification scheme
- Possible indicators of CAB Performance
- Assessing the CAB’s Rules governing Clients’ Statements of Management System Certification on Product Packaging or in Accompanying Information
QMS Specific
Information on the Revision Status of the above guidance notes.
Feedback from users as to whether additional guidance documents should be developed, or if these current ones should be revised is welcomed by the AAPG. Comments on the papers or presentations can be sent to the IAF TC Secretary.
