Adding a New Office/Location to Your Scope of Certification - Important Things to Do to Get Started

For any organization, business growth may mean opening up of new offices at new locations.

Adding a new office/location presents its own unique set of logistics and people challenges.

Beyond that and generally very soon the organization will reach a situation where it will have to add the new office/location to its scope of certification - ISO, CMMI, et al.

So what are the important things to do to get started for an organization that wants to add a new office/location to its current scope of certification?

Here are some important things to do to get started:

• Share the communication related to this with concerned stakeholders both at the corporate office as well as the new office/location 
• Discuss with the auditing partners and understand their expectations for successful audit at the new office/location 
• Assign someone as the overall SPOC for this initiative. The SPOC should have good knowledge of the certification standards and models and past experience with site coordination in external audits 
• Perform quick gap analysis to understand the major gaps and the key pre-requisites and pre-conditions for successful audit 
• Prepare a detailed road-map (who will do what by when) and share with the concerned stakeholders both at the corporate office as well as the new office/location 
• Perform detailed gap analysis and prepare a list of checkpoints that need to be taken care of. This should be done by the SPOC 
• Plan for pre-audit by external auditors at the new office/location before the final audit. It is an effective way to avoid any surprises cropping up in the final audit 
• Identify and communicate the risks and challenges to the concerned to ensure that the entire journey is smooth and happens as per the road-map 
• Adjust and modify the road-map to address issues and challenges that come up during the entire journey 
• Stick to the road-map but be flexible to change the course if the situation demands so. But never forget the milestones in the journey that have hard dates!