Lean & Agile Auditing – Training & Events

Current Open Course Dates:

Risk & Assurance Insights
quoteJames was really engaging from the start. Interesting to note that delegates shared many of the same problems. Solutions offered were simple and effective. Staff who attended all benefited and came back to the office full of ideas and enthusiasm.
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Course Details:

  • 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

  • Lean Finance

    Bespoke in-house

    This 1-2 day workshop, running since 2011, that will be useful for any finance staff who are planning, leading, supporting or thinking about a finance and accountancy transformation initiative.

    The workshop is based on hands on experience of finance transformations along a lean agenda and over 3 years of workshops with various organisations.

    For more information email James Paterson

  • Process improvement – a lean perspective

    Bespoke in-house

    This 1-3 day workshop, running since 2011, is aimed at managers, process owners, quality professionals and auditors who want to understand this fresh way of looking processes – identifying waste that has hitherto been hidden and identifying practical and simple ways to streamline what is being done.

    • Lean is a proven, practical technique that enables managers to drive out waste, manage costs and better deliver value added products and services that customers value. It has been proven across industries and different process areas.
    • Lean techniques encourage change to be delivered in a step by step manner at a much lower cost than conventional large scale change projects; although this workshop will also help participants to better understand how to approach a transformation project (if that is what is wanted).

    For more information email James Paterson

  • Assignment Work Planning and Risk Control Matrices

    Details soon.

  • Effective Scoping of Internal Audit Assignments

    Details soon.

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Contact

Contact and appointments:

Risk & Assurance Insights
T: +44 (0)7802 868914
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