Tribune News Network
Doha
The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Doha Chapter, in cooperation with Protiviti Qatar consulting firm, recently conducted an ‘Agile Auditing’ seminar at Hotel Dusit Doha Westbay.
The presenter, Christopher Puschak, a partner at Anchoram Consulting in Australia, has provided strategic direction to senior executives across Commonwealth governments and private industry for the past 20 years. He has contributed to productive outcomes in internal audit, risk management, governance, and grants management with various businesses, including health, community, social, and human services. Chris has been an active member of the Institute of Internal Auditors-Australia, Canberra Chapter Council since 2008.
Agile Internal Audit is the mindset that an internal audit function uses to focus on the needs of stakeholders, accelerate the audit cycles, provide timely insight, and reduce the waste of resources. By applying an Agile method, the productivity and added value of the Internal audit can be increased, and the lead time of an audit can be reduced.
Chris explained agile principles derived from software development projects, which include satisfying the customer, welcoming changing requirements, face-to-face conversation, maintaining a constant pace, self-organizing teams, and using feedback to improve. He also provided definitions for basic agile terminologies with special connotations, such as Scrum master, Release train engineer, Kanban, Sprint, Epic, Burndown, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), and more.
Knowing when to use Agile in Internal Audit, or when agility in audit is appropriate, has always been a question for auditors. “Agile is suitable when you’re operating in fast-paced risk environments, need to respond quickly to change, engage in activities that require heightened collaboration with the business, aim to change the relationship from adversary to partners, and when the Board requests more proactive audit methods,”said Chris.
Agile principles can help address practical challenges in internal audit. “Many internal audit activities have a history of slow delivery, often taking several months to complete a project. Chris’s presentation was an eye-opener on how internal audit can deliver value-adding services more promptly while collaborating closely with stakeholders. Agile concepts solve many of the common challenges auditors face today and help auditors and stakeholders to determine the value delivery by an audit,” said Sundaresan Rajeswar, a member of the IIA Qatar Board.
Protiviti Qatar sponsored the event with a team including Naveed Khan, Ruchi Singh, Rachna, and Haneen. Board members of the IIA Qatar, including Sundaresan Rajeswar, Rasheed Al Rashidi, Girish Jain, Muralikrishna, and Baher Ziad, were in attendance.
