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Perspectives

Becoming Agile: Elevating internal audit performance and value

Innovating in internal audit to enhance collaboration and deliver timely insights

With increasing demands and diminishing resources, how can internal audit teams keep up? Deloitte’s Agile Internal Audit methodology could be the answer. The articles below offer a closer look at the basics of an Agile approach, how internal audit functions can adopt this methodology and strategies for Internal Audit to advise on the risks of business agility.

Applying Agile methodologies to internal audit processes

Since their origin in software development, Agile processes have been successfully employed in countless initiatives and within a wide variety of business settings.

Building on the original Agile approach, Deloitte’s Agile Internal Audit (Agile IA) methodology challenges both the mindset of internal auditors and their established business processes. It allows the internal audit function to focus on stakeholder needs, accelerate audit cycles, drive timely insights, reduce wasted effort, and generate less documentation.

Unleashing the power of Agile in Internal Audit requires the change to be driven by the leadership, considering not only structure and ways of working but also culture, capabilities and career growth opportunities.

Alan Murray, Director, Internal Audit Service Lead

Of course, Agile methods have only recently been implemented by internal audit departments, prompting questions about whether it is possible to adopt Agile in Internal Audit while remaining true to the IIA Standards. Additional questions about which methodologies to adopt, as well as how to customize and implement them and how Agile projects themselves should be addressed, also invariably arise.

In our latest of interviews on Business Agility, we speak with subject matter experts who share challenges and best practices in internal audit and discuss how to integrate Agile approaches to drive business value.
 

Read our insights on Agile

Considering adopting an Agile mindset? We should talk.

Beginning with their origins in software development, Agile methods have been effective in countless initiatives in various business settings. Building on the original Agile approach, Agile Internal Audit uses methods that change both the mindset of internal auditors and their business processes.

As discussed above, Agile is a change methodology for the internal audit group and its stakeholders. This is crucial, because internal auditors’ work relates to every business and function that affects the organization’s performance and value — and unilateral efforts to change such a function generally fail.
 

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