Audit Approaches - Speed of Change

A few years ago, we began to examine the concept of the Speed of Change in greater depth. We realized that it could be instrumental in shifting the thinking of auditors, who had grown up in a compliance environment, to a risk-based mindset.

To accelerate that mind-shift, we crafted a model that placed various kinds of audits on a continuum of change. Across the top we drew an arrow. On the left hand were control environments not experiencing much change or disruption. On the right were control environments either in such a state of flux or not even yet fully formed.



Doing this allowed auditors with a great deal of experience (and some with very little) to see where the kind of auditing to which they were accustomed fit in the overall scheme of things.

As our rate of change increased, we, of course, shifted our audit approach mix further to the right.

To illustrate, I've included a presentation, which we used to speak publicly about this concept. Enjoy.