Standards

Hi- I'm completing an online certificate in Android app development.  I need to complete a capstone project and I thought about developing an app for Auditors. 

I'd like to know what type of features might be helpful, etc.  If you could take a few minutes and answer the questions below, it would be very helpful.  If you don't want to answer the questions, just reply to this thread with ideas about what might be useful in an auditing app.

All feedback is appreciated.


1. Would you use an app during an audit?
2. For Quality Management Systems that you audit, which standard do you audit to most often? (ISO 9001, ISO 13485, 21 CFR 820, AS9100C, 14 CFR 21, etc.)
3. If you had an app that could perform talk to text would you use it during audit interviews?
4. What parts of the audit process would a smartphone or tablet app best facilitate? 
(1) Audit scheduling (2) Preparation (3) Audit interviews (4) Process tracing (5) Audit report (6) Corrective Actions (7) Corrective Action Effectiveness (8) The entire audit process
5. If you had an app that could facilitate QMS auditing, do you prefer Android or iOS?  Smartphone or Tablet?  Other?

6. Would you pay $20/year for an app to help with auditing or would you prefer to have a free app with Ads?
7. Please forward this list of questions to someone else that also performs audits or manages an audit schedule to get their feedback.


Thanks! -Joe W.

 

1. Would you use an app during an audit?

In my current situation, no, but I can see the value if I were doing 3rd party audits at this time.

2. For Quality Management Systems that you audit, which standard do you audit to most often? (ISO 9001, ISO 13485, 21 CFR 820, AS9100C, 14 CFR 21, etc.)

ISO 9001 and AS9100

3. If you had an app that could perform talk to text would you use it during audit interviews?

This seems like a valuable feature to me

4. What parts of the audit process would a smartphone or tablet app best facilitate? 
(1) Audit scheduling (2) Preparation (3) Audit interviews (4) Process tracing (5) Audit report (6) Corrective Actions (7) Corrective Action Effectiveness (8) The entire audit process

I'd say 1-4 providing the most value to me

5. If you had an app that could facilitate QMS auditing, do you prefer Android or iOS?  Smartphone or Tablet?  Other?

Android (I prefer tablet, but it's because I am too cheap to upgrade my cell phone, probably the average person would find more value in a cell phone)

6. Would you pay $20/year for an app to help with auditing or would you prefer to have a free app with Ads?

While I love free apps, this one seems like one in which the ads would be problematic and $20/year is a reasonable expense


 

(5) There are a number of reporting tools available for android and i devices.
Advantages - portability, ability to photograph evidence, ability to streamline the end reporting, however I note (at least in my experience) these result in brief comments.

If the input device is a phone, drop down lists or radio buttons/check boxes may be practical and OK as a internal audit tool. If I was the client of a 2nd party or 3rd party audit and received a report like that I may challenge the 'value for money' and the credibility of this. Then again....maybe smart predefined responses that are not too repetitive could avoid that.
(3) Speech to Text: - as a user of text to speech products over ~ 20 years - I see an advantage of this as a record of the conversation.

Maximum value is obtained if the person knows and applies dictation techniques. It is often a tedious task grabbing the source text and massaging it into meaningful reported comments.
1 - yes - we already use an in-house designed software tool for our internal audits. I would suggest many companies do.
2 - 9001,14001,45001
3 - yes - if participants agree - but risk in delaying the reporting process. refer to (3) above. Feature would be an initial drawcard.
4 - potentially all as the primary or alternative mechanism - but must be integrated with a strong back-end i.e. a audit database for the analysis. However most relevant would be audit interviews and by default preparing a 1st version audit report.
5 -all of the above. also refer to (5) above
6 -I have a personal preference to respect the development effort and pay for a working product. That said - I may use the free tool to gain confidence before committing any company or my $$s


All The Best

    

Thanks for the feedback!?

I took a quick look on Google Play and iAuditor is top rated.  I've downloaded it and I'm starting to explore what it can do.  Looks very comprehensive for any industry and you can upload your own audit forms and they'll convert them to a digital version.  So far, it's pretty promising.

I can share 4 seats if you want to give it a try.

 

3 spots left!  There are standard checklists for many industries.  I've added a custom checklist for process tracing.  Process tracing is my absolute favorite auditing technique.  How about you?  It'd be great to hear your feedback-- and even better if you'd like to try the app- it facilitates writing the audit report by compiling the data from the checklist.  Auditing may never be the same... :)

2 spots left! ?

Hi Joe,


hope this is not coming too late (since the post date).


.1 Would you use an app during an audit?

Yes, especially a multiple choice one during shopfloor tours (with the ability to record voice or having voice-to-text conversion)


2. For Quality Management Systems that you audit, which standard do you audit to most often? (ISO 9001, ISO 13485, 21 CFR 820, AS9100C, 14 CFR 21, etc.)

ISO9001, ISO 22716, EUGMP


3. If you had an app that could perform talk to text would you use it during audit interviews?

yes. I've already used voice recorders in the past. voice-to-text would be even greater


4. What parts of the audit process would a smartphone or tablet app best facilitate? 

(1) Audit scheduling (2) Preparation (3) Audit interviews (4) Process tracing (5) Audit report (6) Corrective Actions (7) Corrective Action Effectiveness (8) The entire audit process

3,4 and 5


5. If you had an app that could facilitate QMS auditing, do you prefer Android or iOS?  Smartphone or Tablet?  Other?

both systems. Smartphone for the shopfloor tour and tablet for the desktop part of the audit


6. Would you pay $20/year for an app to help with auditing or would you prefer to have a free app with Ads?

pay per year. Data integrity and protection, confidentiality agreement would apply


best regards,

Minas