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March 25, 2009

Benefits of Getting Scope Changes Approved

Do you ever find yourself in a position where you are doing additional work for your customer, and then not getting paid for it? You are not alone. It is not that your customer does not want to pay you for this added scope of work. You just need to follow a basic scope change process to manage this work.

A defined scope change process will ensure your employees understand the steps that must be taken to ensure the work is reviewed and approved by your customer before the work proceeds. Yes, proceeds. Without the upfront approval of your customer, you are putting yourself in jeopardy to not be paid for the work.

At a minimum this process should include:

1.      Identifying the need to perform more work than has been documented on the work request for you to perform.
2.      Notify your supervisor of this additional scope of work, so they can contact your customer for a disposition using a Scope Change Request Form.
3.      Upon completion of this review, record status of the scope change request (approved/disapproved) into a Scope Change Log for tracking purposes.
4.      If the scope change request is approved, the additional work activities are added to the work scope to ensure the change is implemented. If it is disapproved, the additional work will not be performed.
5.      Finally, be sure to instruct your workers on how you want them to proceed.

This will help you manage expectations and show how approved scope change requests impacting your work are resolved. If you do not have one, consider utilizing a consultant to assist your team, or perform this for you, so that you can focus on what’s most important to you - your customers.

At Storti Quality Consulting, we take pride in helping our customers use quality management practices to enhance results and increase profits.  If you’d like to talk about Quality, please call us at 215.657.0837, send an email to ralph.storti@storticonsulting.net, or visit our website, www.storticonsulting.net.

March 10, 2009

Third-Party Audit

A third-party audit is an audit of a company that is performed by an independent auditor. The auditor cannot be an employee of either the company being audited, or the customer they serve. This audit will help to determine the status and reliability of your internal controls.

Most companies are required to effectively manage their relationships with key customers. They can meet this requirement related to audit controls by:

·   Directly auditing their overall operations.
·   Employing the services of an external auditor to evaluate these operations and controls that are in place.
·   Receiving and reviewing sufficiently detailed independent audit reports from a third-party audit firm.

You will need to ensure that the independent auditor you hire is qualified by the ASQ, RAB, or equivalent agency. Next you will need to ensure the scope of this audit satisfies your own audit objectives, and finally that any significant deficiencies are reported and corrected.

Don’t try to go it alone. There are a lot of good auditors out there that can help you. If you do not currently have one, consider utilizing an independent audit consultant to assist your team, or perform this for you, so that you can focus on what’s most important to you - your customers.

At Storti Quality Consulting, we take pride in helping our customers use quality management practices to enhance results and increase profits.  If you’d like to talk about Quality, please call us at 215.657.0837, send an email to ralph.storti@storticonsulting.net, or visit our website, www.storticonsulting.net.


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