Use this four to eight weeks before a first certification audit, or before a scope extension audit. You get two files in a new folder, ./stage-1-readiness-walk/: a short report of what would stop the audit (readiness-walk.md), and a spreadsheet you can open in Excel listing every document with its version, owner, approval and whether it goes to the auditor (document-map.csv). This skill drafts for a human to review and sign; this skill never marks a control effective. Only the certification body decides whether an audit proceeds.

Inputs to gather

Collect the exact set the auditor will receive: the folder, platform export or document list the company plans to send, plus the audit plan or booking confirmation if the certification body sent one. Ask the reader, in one message: audit dates, the scope as written in the certification application, which documents are still drafts, and whether an internal audit and a management review have already been held over the full scope.

Step 1: map the document set

List every document in the document spreadsheet (document-map.csv): path, title, version, approval record (who and when, as a role), last review, owner role, the topic it serves, and whether it goes to the auditor or stays internal. Mark the drafts the reader named as present but unapproved, and reconcile the pack against any evidence request in the booking confirmation; an auditor credits only what was sent. Then build the list of documented information the target framework expects from the reader's licensed copy or a framework lookup, and mark each as present, present but unapproved, or missing. Do not assume the list from memory; the expected set differs between frameworks and extensions.

Step 2: read in the auditor's order

An auditor reads for the system first and the controls second. Walk in this order, noting what an auditor would question: