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diff --git a/content/blog/2023-08-18-agile-auditing.md b/content/blog/2023-08-18-agile-auditing.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f813596 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/blog/2023-08-18-agile-auditing.md @@ -0,0 +1,158 @@ ++++ +date = 2023-08-18 +title = "Agile Auditing: An Introduction" +description = "A quick introduction to using the Agile methodology in an audit." ++++ + +## What is Agile Auditing? + +[Agile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development), the +collaborative philosophy behind many software development methods, has +been picking up steam as a beneficial tool to use in the external and +internal auditing world. + +This blog post will walk through commonly used terms within Agile, +Scrum, and Kanban in order to translate these terms and roles into +audit-specific terms. + +Whether your team is in charge of a financial statement audit, an +attestation (SOC 1, SOC 2, etc.), or a unique internal audit, the terms +used throughout this post should still apply. + +## Agile + +To start, I'll take a look at Agile. + +> The Agile methodology is a project management approach that involves +> breaking the project into phases and emphasizes continuous +> collaboration and improvement. Teams follow a cycle of planning, +> executing, and evaluating. + +While this approach may seem familiar to what audit teams have +historically done, an audit team must make distinct changes in their +mentality and how they approach and manage a project. + +### Agile Values + +The Agile Manifesto, written in 2001 at a summit in Utah, contain a set +of four main values that comprise the Agile approach: + +1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools. +2. Working software over comprehensive documentation. +3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation. +4. Responding to change over following a plan. + +Beyond the four values, [twelve +principles](https://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html) were also +written as part of the summit. + +In order to relate these values to an audit or attestation engagement, +we need to shift the focus from software development to the main goal of +an engagement: completing sufficient audit testing to address to +relevant risks over the processes and controls at hand. + +Audit Examples: + +- Engagement teams must value the team members, client contacts, and + their interactions over the historical processes and tools that have + been used. +- Engagement teams must value a final report that contains sufficient + audit documentation over excessive documentation or scope creep. +- Engagement teams must collaborate with the audit clients as much as + feasible to ensure that both sides are constantly updated with + current knowledge of the engagement's status and any potential + findings, rather than waiting for pre-set meetings or the end of the + engagement to communicate. +- Engagement teams must be able to respond to change in an + engagement's schedule, scope, or environment to ensure that the + project is completed in a timely manner and that all relevant areas + are tested. + - In terms of an audit department's portfolio, they must be able + to respond to changes in their company's or client's + environment and be able to dynamically change their audit plan + accordingly. + +## Scrum + +The above section discusses the high-level details of the Agile +philosophy and how an audit team can potentially mold that mindset into +the audit world, but how does a team implement these ideas? + +There are many methods that use an Agile mindset, but I prefer +[Scrum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(software_development)). +Scrum is a framework based on Agile that enables a team to work through +a project through a series of roles, ceremonies, artifacts, and values. + +Let's dive into each of these individually. + +### Scrum Team + +A scrum project is only as good as the team running the project. +Standard scrum teams are separated into three distinct areas: + +1. **Product Owner (Client Contact)**: The client contact is the audit + equivalent of the product owner in Scrum. They are responsible for + partnering with the engagement or audit team to ensure progress is + being made, priorities are established, and clear guidance is given + when questions or findings arise within each sprint. +2. **Scrum Master (Engagement Lead)**: The engagement or audit team + lead is responsible for coaching the team and the client contact on + the scrum process, tracking team progress against plan, scheduling + necessary resources, and helping remove obstacles. +3. **Scrum Developers (Engagement Members)**: The engagement or audit + team is the set of team members responsible for getting the work + done. These team members will work on each task, report progress, + resolve obstacles, and collaborate with other team members and the + client contact to ensure goals are being met. + +### Scrum Ceremonies + +Scrum ceremonies are events that are performed on a regular basis. + +1. **Sprint Planning**: The team works together to plan the upcoming + sprint goal and which user stories (tasks) will be added to the + sprint to achieve that goal. +2. **Sprint**: The time period, typically at least one week and no more + than one month in length, where the team works on the stories and + anything in the backlog. +3. **Daily Scrum**: A very short meeting held each day, typically 15 + minutes, to quickly emphasize alignment on the sprint goal and plan + the next 24 hours. Each team member may share what they did the day + before, what they'll do today, and any obstacles to their work. +4. **Sprint Review**: At the end of each sprint, the team will gather + and discuss the progress, obstacles, and backlog from the previous + sprint. +5. **Sprint Retrospective**: More specific than the sprint review, the + retrospective is meant to discuss what worked and what did not work + during the sprint. This may be processes, tools, people, or even + things related to the Scrum ceremonies. + +One additional ceremony that may be applicable is organizing the +backlog. This is typically the responsibility of the engagement leader +and is meant to prioritize and clarify what needs to be done to complete +items in the backlog. + +### Artifacts + +While artifacts are generally not customizable in the audit world (i.e., +each control test must include some kind of working paper with evidence +supporting the test results), I wanted to include some quick notes on +associating scrum artifact terms with an audit. + +1. **Product Backlog**: This is the overall backlog of unfinished audit + tasks from all prior sprints. +2. **Sprint Backlog**: This is the backlog of unfinished audit tasks + from one individual sprint. +3. **Increment**: This is the output of each sprint - generally this is + best thought of as any documentation prepared during the sprint, + such as risk assessments, control working papers, deficiency + analysis, etc. + +## Kanban + +Last but not least, Kanban is a methodology that relies on boards to +categorize work into distinct, descriptive categories that allow an +agile or scrum team to effectively plan the work of a sprint or project. + +See Atlassian's [Kanban](https://www.atlassian.com/agile/kanban) page +for more information. |