The driving force for the new 2011 edition of ISO/ IEC 17021 was auditor competence. Not long after the ISO 9000 series was first published in 1987, requirements for the audit process, including auditor qualifications, were specified in the ISO 10011 series. These were qualifications in terms of education, years of work experience and the number of audits. The move toward a competence-based approach began with the publication of ISO 19011 in 2002. While ISO 19011 still included education and work experience, it was with the caveat: "sufficient to acquire the needed knowledge and skills". According to some, however, the problem with ISO 19011 was that it was a guidance document, not a requirements document. So the driving force for the 2011 edition of ISO/IEC 17021 was the need to specify requirements, not simply to offer guidance.Part two of the standard was developed soon after, to transform the guidance in ISO 19011, which offers guidelines on management systems auditing, into firm requirements for the management of the competence of auditors and the audit process, with regard to third-party certification audits.
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