CQA: Certified Quality Auditor

Certification from ASQ is considered a mark of quality excellence in many industries. It helps you advance your career, and boosts your organization’s bottom line through your mastery of quality skills. Becoming certified as a Quality Auditor confirms your commitment to quality and the positive impact it will have on your organization.

The Certified Quality Auditor (CQA) is a professional who understands the standards and principles of auditing and the auditing techniques of examining, questioning, evaluating, and reporting to determine a quality system’s adequacy and deficiencies. The Certified Quality Auditor analyzes all elements of a quality system and judges its degree of adherence to the criteria of industrial management and quality evaluation and control systems

You must have eight years of on-the-job experience in one or more of the areas of the Certified Quality Auditor Body of Knowledge. A minimum of three years of this experience must be in a decision-making position. “Decision- making” is defined as the authority to define, execute, or control projects/ processes and to be responsible for the outcome. This may or may not include management or supervisory positions. If you were ever certified by ASQ as a Quality Engineer, Reliability Engineer, Software Quality Engineer, Supplier Quality Professional, or Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence, experience used to qualify for certification in these fields applies to certification as a Quality Auditor.

The CQA examination is a one-part, 165- multiple choice question exam and is offered in English only. 150 multiple choice questions are scored and 15 are unscored. Total appointment time is five-and-a-half-hours, exam time is 5 hours and 18 minutes.

Some of the exam topics of this exam include:

1. Purpose and Scope of Audits

1.1 Elements of Purpose and Scope
Describe and determine how the purpose of an audit can affect its scope. (Apply)

1.2 Benefits of Audits
Analyze how audits can be used to provide an independent assessment of system effectiveness and efficiency, financial risks, cybersecurity risks, and other organizational measures. (Analyze)

2. Criteria to Audit Against
Define and distinguish between various audit criteria, such as external (industry, national, international) standards, contracts, specifications, quality awards, policies, internal quality management system (QMS), sustainability, and social responsibility. (Analyze)

3. Roles and Responsibilities of Audit Participants
Define and describe the functions and responsibilities of various audit participants, including audit team members, lead auditor, client, auditee, etc. (Apply)

4. Professional Conduct and Consequences for Auditors

4.1 Professional Conduct and Responsibilities
Define and apply the ASQ Code of Ethics, concepts of due diligence and due care with respect to confidentiality and conflict of interest, and appropriate actions in response to the discovery of illegal activities or unsafe conditions. (Apply)

4.2 Legal Consequences
Identify potential legal and financial ramifications of improper auditor actions (carelessness, negligence, etc.) in various situations, and anticipate the effect that certain audit results can have on an auditee’s liability. (Apply)

4.3 Audit Credibility
Identify and apply various factors that influence audit credibility, such as auditor independence, objectivity, and qualification. (Apply)