The corporate audit dilemma!

Audit times are particularly stressful for companies. Here, companies are assessed and certified as conforming to quality standards. Customers feel safe by signing up with a certified company. The irony is that companies have their own compulsions that forces them to bend backwards just to clear the audit! They suddenly go to an overdrive mode to write technical documents for all the previously released products. It is like those students who have lazed around throughout the year and burn the midnight oil just before the exam!

My friend is an IT manager. He was candid when questioned about this approach of putting the cart before the horse. “Look! For us, time to market is key. If we do not deliver the product in time, we do not have a future. But we need the certification. That is also important! Considering both, this is the best we can do.” He elaborates with an over-the-top analogy.

“The core work for the product is done by the programmers. They are my cooks. They can cook, but they cannot write. The documents are written by another team. They are my non-cooks. They can write a cookbook, but they cannot cook! I want the cooks to be left alone. The cooks have been cooking for so long that they need not refer to the cookbook!  If the non-cooks disturb the cooks during the cooking, both will suffer- the dish and the book. End of the day, my customers need the dish! So, we give a free hand to the cooks. Once they complete the dish, the non-cooks will write the book! That is why we scramble before the audit- to write the cookbook for the dishes already cooked!”

The cooking metaphor was getting complicated, but I could not stop my friend. “You may question why the cooks cannot write the cookbook. That looks reasonable, but there is a fallacy. Firstly, my cooks cannot write and secondly, they are too busy. Once they complete the dish, we move them to cook the next dish! The cookbook may be inaccurate since it is written by non-cooks, but we take that risk!”

He hit the issue on the nail saying, “The problem is precisely this- Auditors want to browse through the cookbook during certification time.  We need that certificate by hook or by crook! If you strictly follow the auditor’s guidelines, the cookbook has to be written first and then, cooking should begin. I can do that, but by the time I get breakfast ready, it will be past midnight! I hope you will patiently wait at the table! I will serve you the dish along with the cookbook!” he signed off with a wink!