Lean & Agile Auditing – delivering added value from audit in an efficient way

Lean auditing refers to the use of ‘lean’ principles, first developed in production lines, to drive value in audit work and improve efficiency and productivity. Principles include: “listening to the voice of the customer”, doing things “right first time” and “just in time” and driving “flow”. Agile examines techniques developed in the software sector that are similar, but slightly different from lean, notably delivering a “minimum viable product” to time and using “sprints” and “scrums” to drive pace and engage stakeholders. Most important the webinar aims to see these techniques alongside compliance with IIA standards, not something separate.

Who should attend?

Heads of internal audit, internal audit managers and experienced audit staff.

What will I learn?

Upon completion you will be able to:

• Understand the fundamentals of lean, lean six sigma and agile
• Reconsider who are the key customers of internal audit, what adds value and what doesn’t.
• Reflect on the role of IA – for example, how do you reduce time on follow-up assignments
• Improve assignment planning, with key exam questions
• Ensure stakeholders understand what is in/out of scope from a breadth and a depth perspective.
• How to generate work programmes at pace
• Drive “flow” through the assignment process and making progress in prioritised bite-sized chunks via sprints, scrums/ stand-ups and up-dating backlogs
• Be clear about root cause analysis fundamentals (lean technique key for insight)
• Reappraise reporting and action- planning, both in terms of the length of reports, the way they are written and the process for writing reports and agreeing actions
• Understand the measures that drive lean/agile ways of working, but also ensure compliance with IIA standards – and do we really need timesheets?
• Gain some practical insights around where to start first and some of the behavioural changes that are needed

Course programme

• Understand the fundamentals of lean, lean six sigma and agile including the key similarities and differences.
• Reconsider who are the key customers of internal audit, what adds value and what doesn’t. In particular, it doesn’t add value to tell stakeholders what they already know.
• Reflect on the role of IA – for example, how do you reduce time on follow-up assignments and how can you play a greater role in more future-focussed issues.
• Improve assignment planning – what are the 2-3 exam questions we must really prioritise, and how much assurance are we going to give (e.g. review, audit or investigation). This is very important because as we do things more quickly we need to make sure stakeholders understand what has been in/out of scope from a breadth and a depth perspective.
• Drive “flow” through the assignment process and making progress in prioritised bite-sized chunks, with a keen sense of the 80/20 rule and knowing when to stop
• Be clear about root cause analysis fundamentals – for example, there will always be more than one cause for an issue, and how root cause analysis will speed up audit assignments, not slow them down.
• Be clear how reporting and action planning will change with “flash reports” and the use of “killer facts”
• Understand the measures that drive lean/agile ways of working, but also ensure compliance with IIA standards
• Gain some practical insights around where to start first
• Behavioural changes that show you are “on track” and signs that you might be losing your way (e.g. not thinking clearly enough about methodology changes

Session Timings

The course will start at 9.00 am with breaks as follows:

• Session 1 – 09.00 to 10.30
  Break
• Session 2 – 10.45 to 12.15
  Lunch
• Session 3 – 13.15 to 14.45
  Break
• Session 4 – 15.00 to 16.30

For more information email James Paterson