Self-assessment

A standard is written by a regulator. Your quality system also writes rules for itself, and no external standard can tell you where two of your own procedures disagree.

·01Your rules, read out of your documents

Every rule your documents set themselves: an approval table every document must carry, a numbering convention, the forms a procedure requires. Each rule keeps the passage it was read from.

·02Checked against the whole library

Each rule is checked against every document it governs, and its verdict follows from what each document shows: covered, partial or gap. A document is credited only with a passage found in it.

·03Conflicts first

Where your own documents answer one question differently, the conflict leads the page: the question, each answer, the documents giving it, and the words in contention marked on the page.

·04Discussed, then read again

Every finding can be discussed. Run it again and only what moved is read again: the document that changed, the rule that was questioned.