Descriptive evaluation

If the Descriptive evaluation option is selected in the General tab, the Configuration and Conformity level tabs will be disabled. 

In this case, use the Description field to provide a general description for the evaluation criterion.

This section is used to set the configurations of qualitative evaluations.

Define which rule will be valid for setting the score of the risk and control plans:

Use average for the score

The score will be calculated from the average of the points obtained for the items that are on the lower levels.

• The lower the score, the better the result: with this option enabled, the concept will be the inverse of the system's default one; that is, 0 will be considered good, and 10, bad. If this option is disabled, the score will be set in accordance with SoftExpert Suite's default option – "the higher the better"; that is, 0 will be considered bad, and 10, good.

Example with this field disabled: 

In this example, the conformity levels are: 10 - Conforming / 5 - Requires improvements / 0 - Nonconforming.

Example with this field enabled:

In this example, the conformity levels are: 0 - Conforming / 5 - Requires improvements / 10 - Nonconforming.

Use sum for the score

The score will be calculated by summing the points obtained for each lower level item.

• Use weighted average of the lower level: the weight of the lower level items will be considered in the score calculation.
• With sub-items with different evaluation criteria, ignore their limits: if the plan has sub-items with different evaluation criteria, the limits of the sub-items will be ignored for the score calculation.

In the Limits of possible score for objects whose score will be calculated in the working paper section, determine which of the rules will be valid for setting the possible limits for the scores of the plans that have sub-items. These limits will be used to calculate the conformity percentage. Note: this configuration will not be applied to audit tests.

• Divide maximum score by sub-item weights: enable this option to allow the maximum score of a reference item to be distributed among its sub-items.
• Allow result with negative values: the audit result may be negative, depending on the values defined for the conformity levels.
• The lower the score, the better the result: by default, SoftExpert Audit works with the "the higher the score, the better the result" concept. With this option enabled, this concept will be inverted, that is, the higher the score, the worse the result will be.

For example:

We have a reference item that uses sum for the score. The possible score has been configured as Sum of the possible sub-item score:

The resulting score is the sum of the evaluated lowest level items.

Use subtraction for the score

Each time a lower level item scores, these points will be subtracted from the possible score for that reference item.

• Use weighted average of the lower level: the weight of the lower level items will be considered in the score calculation.
• With sub-items with different evaluation criteria, ignore their limits: if the plan has sub-items with different evaluation criteria, the limits of the sub-items will be ignored for the score calculation.

In the Limits of possible score for objects whose score will be calculated in the working paper section, determine which of the rules will be valid for setting the possible limits for the scores of the plans that have sub-items. These limits will be used to calculate the conformity percentage. Note: this configuration will not be applied to audit tests.

• Divide maximum score by sub-item weights: the maximum score of a reference item will be divided among its sub-items, in accordance with the weight defined for each one.
• Allow result with negative values: the audit result may be negative, depending on the values defined for the conformity levels.

For example:

We will use an audit that is under execution. This audit uses an evaluation criterion configured with subtraction, has three conformity levels (0 point - Conforming, 5 points - Requires improvements, and 10 points - Nonconforming), and uses the sum of the possible sub-item score to define the limits of possible score for the reference item.

Each time a sub-item scores, these points will be subtracted from the maximum possible score for that reference item.

Value and automation

Select one of the options available for the conformity level:

Weighted average of the % of lower level conformity >=: enter a value that, during the execution of the audit, will cause this conformity level to be selected automatically when the average of the results for the immediately lower levels is greater than or equal to this configured value.

This configuration will not be used when the object under this evaluation criterion is a lowest-level one. In this case, the value will be inserted by the user. This option will only be available for criteria with the average method configured.

Weighted average of the sub-item conformity percentage >=: for this option, when the conformity level is chosen, the system must take into account the corresponding value of the children (average or sum of children). If it is not checked, inserting a default value for this conformity is mandatory.

Downgrade

The Apply downgrade to an upper level when selecting this conformity level in a lowest level object option allows for generating an extra downgrade when the value of the conformity level is assigned to a risk and control plan.

This option allows for adding a downgrade in percentage; this means that, during the evaluation, the lowest level object that receives this conformity level will also receive a downgrade, in accordance with the percentage specified in the The upper level result will be penalized with a decrease of field.

If this option is enabled, when the auditor assigns the conformity level, the object will receive the level specified in the Value and automation tab and, moreover, its upper level object will have its score downgraded.

A downgrade can be applied in two ways:

• Exponential: if the upper level object has several 10% downgrades, for example, it will not have its value reduced to zero, as the downgrade is not applied to the original value.
• Cumulative: if the upper level object has several 10% downgrades, for example, it will have its value reduced to zero, as the downgrades are cumulative to the original value.

Possible score for defining the percentage of lowest level objects: when the Inherit from the conformity levels option is enabled, the score will be defined by the lowest and highest values of the conformity levels created above (in the conformity levels). 

The values defined in the Possible score for defining the percentage of lowest level objects field will be used to correspond to 0% and 100% in the audit evaluation finding. For example, if the highest value of the conformity levels created in the levels is 11, the audit objects that have this criterion and are evaluated with 100% will score 11 points.

With the Inherit from the conformity levels disabled, the score corresponding to the percentage will be defined manually, as desired. 

Thus, it is possible to define an extra score or downgrade for the evaluated lowest level object. For example, if 0 is set for 0%, and 10 is set for 100%, and a conformity level worth 11 is created, the scores that exceed the maximum value defined here (10) will be considered as extra; in case of 11, the score will be 110%. The same rule works for scores lower than the minimum value defined in this section. 

This section displays the ID #, the status, and the parties responsible for creating and releasing the revision of the audit criterion. 

Use the Comment tab to record important information about the revision of the evaluation criterion.