Preparing an ISO 55001 Audit
What the domain tests
Preparing an ISO 55001 audit covers scope, criteria, objectives, risk-based planning, document review, the audit plan, work documents, team allocation, and logistics.
Core rules
- Define scope, criteria, and objectives before planning; scope may cover assets, sites, processes, or the whole system.
- Review context, SAMP, policy, objectives, asset management plans, risk registers, performance results, previous findings, and changes.
- Use risk-based sampling: allocate more time to high-value, high-risk, or poorly performing asset classes and processes.
- The audit plan should include dates, locations, activities, auditees, team roles, time allocation, and criteria; it is not the audit program.
- Prepare work documents such as checklists, sampling plans, and interview guides to structure evidence collection, not to replace it.
Worked example
An auditor plans a two-day audit of a water utility. The SAMP shows a high-risk treatment plant and a low-risk office fleet. The auditor allocates most time to treatment plant operational control, maintenance backlog, and competence, and less to fleet. The reasoning is risk-based planning: audit effort should focus where failure would most affect asset management objectives. The plan records the rationale and sampling approach.
Traps
- Writing a generic checklist without reading the SAMP.
- Planning only document review and no site observation.
- Setting a scope that cannot be audited in the time available.
- Forgetting outsourced activities and shift workers.
- Confusing the audit plan with the audit program.