There’s a marauding infestation of adverbs and adjectives that infiltrate the text of quality documents and operating procedures, wreaking havoc wherever they are found. The leader of this menacing bunch is called “All.” Among his compatriots you’ll find “Never,” “Always,” “Every” and “None.”

When I come across a particularly virulent case of rampant absolutes during an audit, I’m tempted to violate the prohibition we auditors have against consulting. I want to scour the auditee’s documentation and point out the countless instances where they’ve used “all,” or one of the other offending words, without perceiving the full implication of what they have written.

I generally end up asking the auditee or process owner, “Do you really mean all?” The authors of the documents rarely give adequate consideration to the manner in which they express the requirements. This normally innocuous group of words can skew meaning, making the requirements absurd or impossible to achieve.

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