ISO 19011 Guidelines for auditing management systems is applicable to all organizations that need to conduct internal or external audits of management systems or manage an audit programme. It is intended to apply to a broad range of potential users, including auditors, organizations implementing management systems and organizations needing to conduct audits of management systems for contractual or regulatory reasons.

The application of ISO 19011 to other types of audits is possible in principle provided that special consideration is paid to identifying the competence needed by the audit team members in such cases.

ISO 19011, Guidelines for auditing management systems, will help with the effective audit of those management systems to ensure continuous improvement, allowing harmonization across systems and a uniform approach of the auditing process where there are multiple systems in place.